Solyndra - can you help

[barbtries]

i just got confronted with this name by my co worker an anti Obama sort of libertarian. i told him i'd research it over the weekend. any help greatly appreciated, but i won't be back to this thread for several hours as i am still at work.

what he said: the govt wasted 500 million, or billion, on this company? friend of the president or democratic lawmakers paid off by this company? like i said i refused to listen but since i did promise to educate myself on the subject when monday rolls around i would love to present some evidence that is not so damning to those he loves to damn.

thank you DU!!!!!!!!!!

[Zen Democrat]

1. Try this link:

http://thinkprogress.org/romm/2011/09/13/317594/timeline-bush-administration-solyndra-loan-guarantee/

[nutsnberries]

7. thanks for that! nt

[SecularMotion]

2. The Phony Solyndra Solar Scandal

Well here's a surprise: conservatives and oil interests are pushing deceptive and destructive stories about President Obama and clean energy. Imagine that! Their intent (as always) is to turn people against President Obama, clean energy, national energy policy, stimulus to help the economy, and government in general. It's what they do. Here is some information to help you push back on the latest whipped-up, anti-green, anti-government, anti-Obama "scandal."

Solyndra was a startup solar-power equipment manufacturer based in Fremont, California that went bankrupt at the end of August. The company's solar collectors used a special tubular internal design that let it collect light from all directions, and were made with a copper-indium-gallium-diselenide (CIGS) thin film that avoided using then-expensive silicon. It was one of several companies that received assistance from the government, in an attempt to push back on China's strategic targeting of green-energy manufacturing.

The company, partly backed by the conservative Walton family had received a loan guarantee from the Department of Energy. The loan, which was originally pushed by the Bush administration, was 1.3% of the DOE portfolio.

The economy tanked and cut demand, and at the same time Solyndra could not compete with subsidized companies located in China as they rapidly scaled up. So Solyndra ran out of money. Conservatives and oil interests are using the bankruptcy as a platform to attack green energy and the idea of green jobs in general, solar power in particular, President Obama as always, stimulus funding and the idea of developing a national strategic industrial policy to push back on China and others who have their own national policies to win this key industry of the future.

http://www.truth-out.org/phony-solyndra-solar-scandal/1316098873

The real scandal is how the Bush administration failed to subsidize renewable energy and allowed China to get the jump on production.

[nutsnberries]

9. and thanks for that. nt

[FSogol]

3. 500 million is 5 days of war in Afghanistan and Iraq. How long have we been at war?

:shrug:

[OffWithTheirHeads]

4. My understanding is that the CEO is a Republican.

[badtoworse]

5. You'll be putting lipstick on a pig

I hate to say this, but Solyndra is going to be a black eye for Obama. I work in the power business and reports I've read suggest that the decision to guarantee the loans was made before DOE had finished doing an adequate diligence and was made over the objections of the people working on the deal. Apparently, there was pressure from the administration to accelerate the process, perhaps for stimulus reasons. I haven't seen any suggestions that there payoffs though. It would seem that the $500 million is lost.

About the best you can say is that the application for the loan was made during the Bush administration and they pushed it forward. It's possible the Solyndra executives committed fraud and if true, that would at least partially excuse the people who decided to make the guarantee.

At the end of the day, Obama is going to wear the blame for this - his administration pulled the trigger.

[Champion Jack]

8. Nonsense

nice try tho'

[nutsnberries]

6. your co worker sounds like my *friend*, Solyndra=huge scandal!

it was 500 Million from the gov.

[The Straight Story]

10. Ask them about the banks, financial houses, etc that hosed us under bush

to the tune of hundreds of billions - and ask that co-worker if they feel the same about those things.

And Solyndra is a company so anything it does must be good and right (according to those on the right) so where is the problem :)

[barbtries]

11. thanks to evreryone who responded.

why i can't quit this site! :yourock:

[Viking12]

12. Send them the graph from this thread...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=439&topic_id=1956507