Sunday, August 10, 2014

Another Taxpayer-funded ‘Green’ Gamble: Energy Department doles out $150 million to Cape Wind’s expensive, risky offshore wind project tied to high-profile Democrats



Despite the fact that the Department of Energy's (DOE) Loan Guarantee program alone brought us five complete failures to date: Solyndra, Beacon Power, Abound Solar, Vehicle Production Group, and Fisker Automotive, they recently heralded that they are ready to dish out billions more –– even a $150 million gamble on a controversial, expensive and risky offshore wind project.

Moreover, this doesn’t factor in the numerous DOE funded projects that are still in the shadows, nor my blistering story on the "law-breaking, American hating" Spanish conglomerate Abengoa, that was subsidized with over $3.6 billion in stimulus loans and grants from the U.S. taxpayer. In fact, this story finally landed some press by Lachlan Markay of the Washington Free Beacon, spurring on the possibility that accountability could be around the corner. But this time our whistleblowers went public with one predicting, “This company [Abengoa] eventually will go bankrupt. The question is at what expense to the United States people and government.”

This is the same Energy Department program that, since 2010, the Green Corruption Files has exposed that the winners were those with meaningful political connections to the president and other high-ranking Democrats and/or their rich cronies –– in many cases to both and in some cases to multiple “friends," with Majority Leader Harry Reid tied to five, which I unveiled last November. 

In calculating additional renewable energy giveaways (mainly from the stimulus package), there are well above 32 Obama-backed green energy companies that have gone under, costing taxpayers over $3 billion and counting. Furthermore, on the "troubled list" are five bailouts and 22 green energy companies/projects that are ready to bite the dust, yet, this does not take into account the various taxpayer-funded green energy programs that have also failed miserably.

But this administration doesn’t mind flushing billions of tax dollars down the eco-toilet, because this loan program is only part of the President Obama's "save the planet slush fund" priced at $150 billion through 2014 on green initiatives, which factors in both stimulus and non-stimulus funds.

Cape Wind: Democrats & Dirt

Photo by Boston Herald File
Last month, the Energy Department "made a provisional commitment to a $150 million loan guarantee for the Cape Wind offshore wind power project in Massachusetts."

Bloomberg Businessweek countered this move with these headlines: "Government Money Is Not a Silver Bullet for Cape Wind's Offshore Project." The author Matthew Philips also added, "Cape Wind had initially sought $500 million from the DOE. The loan is contingent on Cape Wind securing the total $2.6 billion in financing it needs. So far it has raised about half that." It turns out that Barclays is Cape Wind's financial adviser and most of the funds are coming from foreign financial companies like the Danish Export Credit Agency as well as French, Dutch, and Japanese banks.

Bloomberg also noted, "Cape Wind got through a crucial hurdle at the end of 2013, signing a deal to buy turbines from Siemens, thus qualifying for an expiring federal tax credit."  This is either the Business Energy Investment Tax Credit (ITC) or the Renewable Electricity Production Tax Credit (PTC), but reports note that this special tax break is "worth $780 million for Cape Wind." 

According to the DOE, "The proposed Cape Wind project would use 3.6-megawatt offshore wind turbines that would provide a majority of the electricity needed for Cape Cod, Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard, and would create approximately 400 construction jobs and [a whopping] 50 operations jobs."

As reported by Bloomberg, "Cape Wind is the brainchild of its chief executive, Jim Gordon, who has spent the past decade (and tens of millions of his own money) fighting a pitched political battle over the project." Also, over the past decade, as documented by Center for Responsive Politics, Cape Wind Assoc has spent over $1.8 million in lobbying expenditures.

Meanwhile, this controversial project has the "support" of the Left in droves: Environment and Health Organizations, Labor Business Trade and Consumer Organizations as well as these key Democrat politicians: 

Did the "Green Gov" Deval Patrick "Strong Arm" the Cape Wind Deal in 2010?

When the loan was announced, the Boston Globe shared the enthusiasm of Governor Deval Patrick as well as Senator Edward J. Markey.  Both applauded the government spending, while Patrick claimed “Offshore wind will not only provide a new, clean source of energy for the United States, it will reduce American reliance on fossil fuel, mitigate climate change, and jump-start a new US industry that will create thousands of clean energy jobs.”

Needless to say, Governor Patrick is no stranger to pumping shady green deals that fail. After all, in February 2013, he won the "Green Governor of the Year Award," and he has pushed aggressively to get Cape Wind built.

According to the Boston Herald, the Democrat governor in 2010 "may have strong armed the wind project into fruition at the height of his reelection bid. It appears that while Patrick was touting Cape Wind on the campaign trail, behind the scenes he was squashing the safety and navigation concerns that stood in his way."
Patrick was also part of the "Evergreen Solar Shut Out" that I divulged in August 2012, which was an investment of the Perseus Energy & Technologies Portfolio –– a firm which was big winner of stimulus funds that is tied to the big-wig Democrat, Obama bundler James A. Johnson,

In short, Evergreen Solar, Inc. –– now Evergreen Solar (China) –– was one of the Obama administration’s pet green energy projects, which apparently received "stimulus funds, grants, tax-credits, low-interest loans and subsidies." This included praise, a photo op and a "$58 million financial aid package from the Patrick-Murray administration to support Evergreen’s $450 million factory." However, Evergreen filed for bankruptcy in August of 2011, reporting 800 USA job losses, while moving their "green jobs" and entire company to China.


Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey and Minnesota Senator Al Franken snag donations from Cape Wind executives and lobbyists: Also implicated in two previous DOE deals

This past May, it was reported by the Boston Herald, ”Cape Wind executives and lobbyists have poured hundreds of thousands of dollars since last year into the campaign coffers of key lawmakers — including more than $50,000 to U.S. Sen. Edward J. Markey.” Moreover, “U.S. Sen. Mark Udall, U.S. Rep Joseph Kennedy III, and U.S. Sen. Al Franken are among the politicians who have reaped thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from Cape Wind executives and lobbyists.”

While many are aware that Massachusetts Senator Markey is a climate change crusader, and from 2007-2010 served as Chair of the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, he was also the co-sponsor of the failed cap-and-trade bill in 2009. In 2013, Markey also introduced a bill that would force people nationwide to buy green energy: The American Renewable Energy and Efficiency Act, of which, from what I gather, was referred to committee in July of this year.

When Rep. Markey began his mission to fill Secretary of State John Kerry’s Senate seat, he was endorsed by many green groups, and according to the Daily Caller, his “2013 Senate campaign received large amounts of funding from environmental groups.”

What's interesting too, is that both Senators Markey and Franken were mentioned inside the internal DOE email dump," which was unleashed in October 2012 by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee –– a piece of the green corruption evidence that The Green Corruption Files has reporting on since their release and have cited as needed.

These particular emails implicate many inside the BrightSource $1.6 billion shady deal, including executives and stakeholders, DOE officials as well as Obama’s Green Team and several in Congress from the Democrat side. In 2009, then-Rep Markey as well as and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is a partner and Senior Adviser at VantagePoint, which is a major investor in BrightSource, were privy to (involved in) this stimulus deal. Details can be found in my November 2013 Green Corruption File on Senator Harry Reid’s Clean-Energy Dirt.

In the meantime, these same emails find that Minnesota Senator Franken, another huge climate change pusher, and member of the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, was in the middle of the SAGE Electrochromics DOE deal. It turns out that this company, based in Faribault, Minnesota, which makes electronically tintable glass, after they snagged a $31 million Advanced Energy Manufacturing Tax Credit, in early 2010, received a $72 million loan guarantee from the DOE's 1703 program. 

While Franken openly supported and promoted SAGE, behind the scenes, and at least in August 2011, he was discussing this deal with Jonathan Silver, the DOE's Executive Director at that time, who was smack in the middle of all the Energy Department crony deals. However, this $72 million SAGE transaction fell apart, and in 2012, the company was sold to French building products giant Saint-Gobain. Also, that $31 million special American tax credit was carried over to the new foreign owners.

Mass Senator Elizabeth Warren: Cape Wind advocate and wealthy climate change fearmonger

Even as the wealthy Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, whose estimated 2012 net worth landed just south of $7 million, while residing in a $5 million mansion (with I'm sure a high carbon footprint), continues to demonizes the rich, while espousing the middle class, the "populist" potential presidential candidate for the Democrat Party has continually taken money from the wealthy. This includes donations from Wall Street to the left-wing group MoveOn.org –– the latter is partially funded by left-wing billionaire George Soros that raises tens of millions of dollars for Democratic Party politicians and causes, which includes lobbying on their behalf while attacking the opposition.

It's no surprise that Warren, who is touting her progressive agenda, is backed by many left-wing and even radical groups (Demos, Progressive Change and Democracy for America come to mind), but it's the support of Big Environmental groups that are of particular interest here because they also sing her praises –– with even one of the nation’s most politically active environmental nonprofits, the League of Conservation Voters, spending at least a million dollars to help Warren defeat Scott Brown in the 2012 Massachusetts senate race.

And guess who is listed as a "supporter" of Cape Wind? Yep, it's the League of Conservation Voters! One big happy family, I guess.

Just last March, Warren graced the senate floor to speak out on climate change, emphasizing her doom and gloom message:"...we are on the cusp of a climate crisis, a point of no return that will threaten our health, our economy and our world.”

Warren has also been a "full-throated supporter" of the Cape Wind offshore wind project for years now, and on July 2, 2014, took to Facebook to congratulate them on their government subsidy: 
We just took a big step toward developing clean wind energy off our coast right here in Massachusetts. I applaud the Department of Energy for its conditional commitment of a $150 million loan guarantee for the Cape Wind project to become America's first commercial-scale offshore wind farm.
Auhh, OK...

Cape Wind's Clean-Energy Dirt 

Obviously, being a "climate change" crusader is not a crime –– "Dem talking points," exaggeration, lies and all. Neither is advocating for a clean-energy project, but what about taking donations from the project executives and lobbyists that they are aggressively promoting?  Hmmm

Nevertheless, this is another "dirty" clean-energy deal, starting with the fact that between 2009 and 2010, political pressure came from the Obama and Patrick administrations to approve Cape Wind regardless of the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA’s) safety concerns. Concerns that were reflected in internal FAA emails.

A GOP inquiry into whether the FAA's initial approval in 2010 was the result of political pressure from the left, spurred a court-ordered reevaluation. Two years later the FAA gave Cape Wind its final green light. "Cape Wind cleared its last bureaucratic hurdle Wednesday when the Federal Aviation Administration released its finding that the project poses no hazard to planes," declared the Boston Business Journal on August 16, 2012. But the fight raged on, and as recent as January of this year, Cape Cod Today briefed the masses, "The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) approval of the Cape Wind project, rejecting every argument that had been advanced by the project’s opponents."

Under Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar (another key player in fast-tracking the DOE stimulus deals), Cape Wind won its lease from the Interior Department in April 2010.  Lawsuits followed, but in March 2014, reports surfaced, "A U.S. District Court judge in Washington, D.C. ruled against opponents of Cape Wind in four lawsuits that challenged the project’s permitting approval by the U.S. Department of Interior."

It's not yet clear if any of the key Democrats listed in this post –– Senator Elizabeth Warren (MA), Senator Edward J. Markey (MA), Senator Al Franken (MN), Senator Mark Udall (CO), Congressman Joseph Kennedy III (MA), Congressman Bill Keating (MA) –– were directly involved in Cape Wind securing this $150 million DOE loan. I guess we'll have to wait for internal emails to surface. That's  unless Team Obama has another computer crash. But what we can confirm is that like most of these "green" government crony deals, the controversial Cape Wind project, that has apparently overcome numerous lawsuits, is expensive, high risk, and is destined to become dependent on government subsidies.

Even though some have predicted, "Cape Wind is another Solyndra boondoggle in the making," The Hill in June made this forecast: "Not only would Cape Wind burden taxpayers and ratepayers with its high costs, it would outsource jobs abroad." This is the exact opposite of how the Obama administration and his minions spun their green revolution: Green energy is supposed to save the planet and create millions of American green jobs.

And what about the birds?

Big Wind: It's Dirty Secrets & Eco-massacre 


Wind energy is frequently touted as a clean, green, and cheap source of energy that can reduce our dependence on fossil fuels. However, most paying attention know that Big Wind is "the most corrupt and corrupting industry in the world."
 
This all starts with the fact that our government, along with Big Wind and their allies, are misrepresenting its cost to taxpayers and ratepayers. 
 
Worse is the data surrounding the carnage inflicted on Mother Nature by wind turbines: "More than 573,000 birds are killed by the country's wind farms each year, including 83,000 hunting birds such as hawks, falcons and eagles, according to an estimate published in March [2013] in the peer-reviewed Wildlife Society Bulletin," documented the Associated Press.
Even as solar plants "execute" birds midair, it’s not just eagles, hawks, falcons, owls and other birds, but also bats that are falling victim to wind-turbine blades as well.

Yet, the real death toll, as disclosed in late 2012 by Paul Driessen of the Washington Examiner is much more devastating: "The horrific reality is that in the United States alone, 'eco-friendly' wind turbines kill an estimated 13 million to 39 million birds and bats every year."

Why the massive discrepancy?

Driessen blamed it on "misleading or even fraudulent data," while just over a year ago, the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT) documented a key reason (coupled with an extensive report): Big Wind “has been hiding at least 90% of this slaughter for decades…”

Further insight into this eco-massacre can be found in this more recent (April 2014) report, EXPOSING THE WIND INDUSTRY GENOCIDE by Jim Wiegand, who is an independent wildlife expert with decades of field observations and analytical work.

Adding to the deception is the utter hypocrisy that follows these federally subsidized murders: Under the reign of the Obama regime wind farms get a pass –– even with the federally protected birds. As pointed out by the AP, "The Obama administration has charged oil companies for drowning birds in their waste pits, and power companies for electrocuting birds on power lines. But the administration has never fined or prosecuted a wind-energy company, even those that flout the law repeatedly."

In the mix there is “mounting evidence that the noise and vibrations from wind turbines can adversely affect humans and wildlife,” reported Breitbart News.

Wind Energy: Not Clean, Not Green and Not Free

Additionally, and as pointed out by my friend Mary Kay Barton, who is an advocate for scientifically sound, affordable, and reliable electricity for all Americans, while citing an array of expert reports in this field, she surmises, “Wind energy is Not Clean, Not Green, and Not Free!”

Below are some bullet points proving her point: 
  • With approximately 250,000 industrial wind turbines installed worldwide today (45,100 turbines totaling over 60GW of installed wind projects in the USA, according to AWEA), CO2 emissions have NOT been significantly reduced, nor has a single conventional generation plant –– including coal, been decommissioned thanks to industrial wind. (See: Wind Turbines Are Climate-Change Scarecrows, by Robert Bryce)
  • The Brookings Institute reports that "Wind and Solar are the Worst" way to reduce CO2.
  • In many low-wind areas of the country (i.e. New York State), Industrial Wind Turbines do NOT produce enough power to pay for themselves over their very short 5 - 13 year lifespan.
  • The average output of many wind factories is less than 25% - many days, providing nothing at all.
  • Studies from those long-invested in wind power in Spain and elsewhere have shown that 2 - 4 jobs are LOST in the rest of the economy, in large part due to the associated "necessarily skyrocketing” electricity rates President Obama forewarned would accompany his 'green' energy policy.
Sad state of affairs...
Last but not least, a few months ago, Peter Roff, a contributing editor at U.S. News & World Report, expressed the following:
There are very few people in the environmental movement that seem to care about the number of birds and other species of flying animals who are being decapitated in mid-flight by giant turbines spinning in the breeze. They also don’t seem to care that wind, which is already unreliable because it doesn’t blow all the time, is also more costly to generate than electricity produced though already proven means, such as natural gas and nuclear power. What they care about is the way the Wind Production Tax Credit makes wind energy attractive on the bottom line, not because it is profitable but because of the way the profits and losses line up against the tax credits.

Roff then pointed to a recent statement by President Obama's billionaire buddy Warren Buffet: "For example, on wind energy, we get a tax credit if we build a lot of wind farms. That's the only reason to build them. They don't make sense without the tax credit." This special tax break –– the Production Tax Credit (PTC), which is really a "wolf in sheep's clothing," expired at the end of 203, but stay tuned, because Big Wind has been frantically trying to get it revived and the battle over its extension is still underway.

What about offshore wind farms?

Considering that Cape Wind is America's first offshore wind farm, let's take a look at our friends over at the United Kingdom (UK). In his July 2014 piece, Renewable energy is not working, Matt Ridley (author and columnist for The UK Times), while addressing offshore wind, notes the following:
Britain is the world leader, meaning we are the only ones foolish enough to pay the huge subsidies (treble the going rate for electricity) to lure foreign companies into tackling the challenge of erecting and maintaining 700ft metal towers in stormy seas. The good news is that the budget for subsidising offshore wind has almost run out. The bad news is that it is already costing us billions a year and ruining coastal views.
James Delingpole at Breitbart London, wrote another thrilling explanation of this wind energy phenomenon few weeks ago: 
Up until now, offshore wind farms had been widely considered by many experts to be about the most pointlessly extravagant and inefficient form of energy generation short of paying Olympic athlete Mo Farah £1 million an hour to run inside a giant, jewel-encrusted hamster wheel attached to a turbine.

Besides being wildly expensive (so heavily subsidised by compulsory levies that they cost six times more than coal energy) they are also: shortlived (because it's hard to erect such large mechanical structures in such hostile terrain); subject to declining efficiency; they kill an average 110-330 birds per turbine per year; they blight the view from the coast; they disrupt shipping; they kill whales and other marine life; they drive up energy prices; they increase fuel poverty; they enrich rent-seekers; they require vast pylons to carry their costly, intermittent energy from the sea across the land.

But once again, none of that matters because, according to exciting new research from Britain, the Netherlands and the United States –– a report in the new issue of Current Biology, states that offshore wind farms are “good” because of… wait for it… barnacles!


A Look Back at the Energy Department's Clean-Energy Portfolio

When the president released his 2012 aggressive and controversial Climate Action Plan, he called for spending more taxpayer money as well as additional environmental power. This included the Energy Department's loan program that was set to “devote as much as $8 billion to helping industries like coal and oil make cleaner energy,” wrote the New York Times.

The DOE's Loan Guarantee Program has been a main focus throughout my work, and it’s worth repeating that it consists of three separate programs: Section 1703, Section 1705, and the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing (ATVM). Both Section 1703 and the ATVM programs were established during the Bush administration, meanwhile Section 1705 was created by the 2009-Recovery Act –– the trillion-dollar spending bill that was sold as a means to save our economy from the brink of disaster and create American jobs. The stimulus bill was jammed-packed full of clean-energy provisions, of which about 10 percent ($100 billion) of the monies were earmarked for renewable energy.

However, we now know that the stimulus package was far from that: It was a "key tool for advancing clean-energy goals and fulfilling a number of campaign commitments," as exposed by a 57-page, “Sensitive & Confidential” memo written by economist Larry Summers to Obama in December 2008.

Initially, between 2009 and 2011, the DOE guaranteed $34.7 billion of taxpayer money to 33 clean-energy projects. However, at this point, and not counting Cape Wind, the Energy Department has doled out 32.4 billion of taxpayer money to 31 clean-energy projects.


 Section 1703 

A large chunk of the DOE's budget was earmarked for nuclear projects, of which $10.33 billion in energy loans went out to the following two projects: 

  • In May 2010, the Department of Energy offered a conditional commitment for a $2 billion loan guarantee to AREVA Enrichment Services, LLC (a French company) to support the Eagle Rock Enrichment Facility (EREF) in Idaho Falls, ID. This project is supposed to support 310 permanent jobs as well as 1,000 temporary construction jobs. 
  • In February 2010, $8.33 billion went to fund Plant Vogtle project to support 800 permanent and 3,500 temporary construction jobs –– which is a basically a Southern Company deal. According to SC site, "The Vogtle Electric Generating Plant, located near Waynesboro in eastern Georgia near the South Carolina border, is jointly owned by Georgia Power (45.7%), Oglethorpe Power Corporation (30%), Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia (22.7%) and Dalton Utilities (1.6%). "
In my July 2013 Green Corruption File, I noted that both companies have direct ties to the president and other high-powered Democrats. However, what is not widely known is that the White House  pressured these two loans and they were "POTUS" approved. In the meantime, both projects have been plagued with issues and are still not producing any energy at this time.

Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing

In August of 2013, with more than $15 billion in remaining authority, the Energy Department announced plans to reopen the ATVM loan program. This program became infamous for dishing out five loans (out of over 100 applicants) at the cost of $8.4 billion to three politically connected auto companies. Meanwhile "both Ford Motor Co. and Nissan were heavily engaged in negotiations with the Obama administration over fuel economy standards for model years 2012-2016 at the time DOE was considering their applications."

Thus far the ATVM loan program has fostered two losers: Fisker Automotive, which was also "junk" rated (loss: $160 million) and Vehicle Production Group (loss: $50 million), while touting the continually subsidized (both federal and state) billionaire's electric-car company Tesla Motors as a success.

The Stimulus-created 1705 Section 

It is the now expired stimulus section of the DOE's loan program that has gained the most scrutiny. Still, the Energy Department has always claimed that the loans were based on "merit." However, in March 2012, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee proved otherwise when they unleashed a damaging report exposing the fact that the DOE had doled out in excess of $16 billion to 26 projects (out of 460 applications submitted), of which 22 of the loans were rated “Junk" grade due to their poor credit quality. "The remaining ended up on lowest end of the investment grade of categories, giving the DOE’s 1705 loan portfolio an overall average of BB-."

By October 2013, the DOE closed two defunct stimulus loan guarantees: Prologis that was awarded $1.4 billion for Project Amp and SoloPower Inc for $197 million. SoloPower, which experienced serious issues from the onset (all documented in my April 2013 file), did receive taxpayer money from the state of Oregon.


Sweetheart Deals: The DOE’s four risky and "deadly" stimulus wind projects priced at over $1.6 billion went to Dem Cronies

The DOE's stimulus loans also funded four risky wind projects, which also snagged a substantial amount of free cash from the 1603 stimulus grant program. These were chronicled in my January 2013 post, noting the carnage, cronyism and corruption behind Big Wind and these particular subsidies.

#1) Caithness Shepherds Flat
  • Rating BBB- by Fitch; Oct 2010
  • Taxpayer Money: received a partial guarantee of $1.3 billion in Oct 2010 for Gilliam and Morrow Counties, OR.
  • Jobs: 35 permanent /400 construction
  • Status: operational 
#2) Granite Reliable
  • Rating BB by Fitch; Sept 2011
  • Taxpayer Money: received a partial guarantee of $168.9 million in September 2011 for a wind project in Coos, NH,
  • May 23, 2012 received over a $56 million 1603 grant for "wind in New Hampshire" [docket #4217 –– $56,201,202].
  • Jobs: 6/198
  • Status: operational 
#3) Kahuku Wind Power, LLC, a project of First Wind in Kahuku Oahu, HI,
  • Rating BB+ by Fitch; July 2010
  • Taxpayer Money: was granted a $117 million loan in July 2010, And then on February 3, 2012 this same project received a 1603 grant­ for over $35 million [docket #2594 –- $35,148,839].
  • Jobs: 10/200
  • Status: operational 
#4) Record Hill Wind
  • Rating BB+ by S&P; Aug 2011
  • Taxpayer Money received a $102 million loan, announced in March 2011, and it was finalized in August 2011 for a wind project in Roxbury, ME, and on June 8, 2012 they scored a 1603 grant for over $33 million for “wind in Maine” [docket #3044 –– 33,736,709].
  • Jobs: 8/200
  • Status: operational 
Since it all began, and as of January 2014, three stimulus-funded projects have already gone down: Solyndra (loss: $570.4 million), Beacon Power (loss: $67.4 million), and Abound Solar (loss: $494.3 million). Meanwhile, the Energy Department violated the stimulus law and bailed out at least four green-energy projects/companies, costing taxpayers over $7.5 billion. There are also quite a few that have been problematic since receiving these loans and now we have eight that are still not generating energy –– clean, green, alternative, renewable, or otherwise.

American Green Jobs 

Considering that the stimulus and the Left's green revolution was sold as an American jobs creator, it's worth repeating that the reality is that tens-of-billions of American tax dollars have directly funded foreign-owned entities, while many stimulus-backed firms were snatched up for dirt cheap by other countries  –– with even green jobs being shipped overseas.

From the beginning, the DOE has exaggerated, manipulated (with hypocrisy in the loop) the number of green jobs as created, saved, indirect and direct as well as supported and induced, and even "touching lives."  Even if you trust the Energy Department's calculation of 55,000, you'll discover that the majority, 33,000, is from Ford Motor Company's $5.9 billion DOE ATVM loan.

The May 2013 report by the Institute for Energy Research (IER) gives insight into the DOE's dismal reality on green jobs: "The Department of Energy has spent nearly $26 billion since 2009 on its Section 1703 and 1705 loan programs. However, these two programs only yielded 2,308 permanent jobs — meaning the cost to taxpayers was $11.25 million per job," recorded the Daily Caller. Even if you take out SoloPower and Prologis (money spent and the jobs created), that leaves $24.7 billion tax dollars and 1806 jobs, which calculates to about $13.7 million per job. 

To be fair, since it was the 2009-Recovery Act that the Obama administration promised as a jobs creator, we'll count only the stimulus-created 1705 loans. After eliminating SoloPower and Prologis, this program that once was at $16 billion, so far cost taxpayers about $14.4 billion and only generated 696 jobs –– about $20 million per job.  


Energy Department Fueled by Cronyism, Corporate Welfare, and Corruption

So what do Americans get out from the Energy Department's wheeling and dealing?

Those benefiting aren’t taxpayers, ratepayers or even small businesses. They are those that bankrolled Obama’s campaigns: big bundlers, members of his National Finance Committee, as well as large and current donors to the Democratic Party.

The Obama administration, with “green” loans, grants and special tax credits, has been subsidizing millionaires and billionaires, predominately from the Left, whose each individual "carbon footprint" is bigger than my entire city –– and all with friends in high places, gaining more wealth off the backs of hard-working American taxpayers.

Along the way, these loans and other green government subsidies have fueled corporate welfare, which not only includes Big Wind, but Wall Street, Big Venture Capitalists, Big Banks, and Big Energy, while catering to special interests groups, top DC lobbyists and powerful left-wing think tanks. 
Between constant tracking of the green energy stimulus spending as well as the Energy Department's loan program, I've studied House Oversight reports and hearings as well as Energy Department internal emails, and much more. The smoking gun was unleashed in October 2012 (a Memorandum, Appendix I and the 350+ page Appendix II), where the evidence proves that none of this was an accident.

Inside this particular email dump, there are plenty of references to the president, POTUS, the White House, the "7th floor," and "the Hill." More disturbing is that contrary to House Oversight testimonies by DOE officials, those inside the DOE were rushing the approval of the DOE loans –– a fast track process imposed at the POTUS level, yet they were met with resistance by the Treasury as well as the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), amongst others involved in the deal making process.

Let's not forget that on Friday October 26, 2012, President Obama told a local Denver, Colorado news anchor that decisions made in the loan program office are “decisions, by the way, that are made by the Department of Energy, they have nothing to do with politics.”

As it turns out, these emails reveal that many of the DOE loans were rushed and approved for political reasons –– visits, speeches, announcements, photo ops, and talking points for the president as well as for the purpose of helping those connected to the companies seeking the loans –– CEO's, investors, and Democrat politicians, which goes beyond subsidizing Nevada companies in order to help Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid win his 2010 reelection campaign.

These bombshell emails also expose the cozy relationships DOE officials and advisors had during the loan review process with loan applicants and their CEO's, lobbyists, and investors, etc. It's no surprise that they had meetings and calls with DOE officials and Energy Secretary Chu, but there are documented meetings and calls with the president, VP, and WH as well as plenty of "green fraternizing" going on –– bike riding, coffee meetings, sleepovers, "beer summits," Al Gore parties, dinners, Democrat fundraisers, and so on.

If the past is any indicator on how the Energy Department Loan Guarantee Program has operated under the Obama regime, and as they continue to gamble with taxpayer money, we can expect more cronyism, corporate welfare, corruption and failure to erupt out of the ashes –– including the Cape Wind offshore wind project.

We'll be watching....

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