Friday, February 19, 2021

Obama’s Green Energy Failure List--Green New Deal Frozen in its Tracks

 Submitted by: Terry Payne

URL: https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2021/02/green_new_deal_frozen_in_its_tracks.html#ixzz6mqLfGFgF
URL https://www.johnlocke.org/update/obamas-green-energy-failure-list/

 

Folks,

 

As an update on how Obama and Biden fared in their crony investment of billions of taxpayer subsidies into “Green Energy” companies here’s an overview from the John Locke.Org in North Carolina October 2012. A Biden administration will again doll out billions to his crony demon-rat buddies.

 

Obama’s Green Energy Failure List

by Dr. Roy Cordato

Posted on 

 

Weekly John Locke Foundation research division newsletter focusing on environmental issues.

The newsletter highlights relevant analysis done by the JLF and other think tanks as well as items in the news.

1. Obama’s Green Energy Failure List

This article at the Green Corruption blog is the best I’ve seen in chronicling the Obama administration’s failures in subsidizing so called green energy products, primarily with money from the economy-destroying stimulus package of 2009. It goes on to demonstrate the "crony" nature of these programs and how Obama has dolled out other people’s money with the purpose of rewarding his friends.

The article is basically a summary of extensive research done by the author Christine Lakatos and energy policy expert Marita Noon. As Lakatos notes:

23 bankrupt, 27 troubled, equals a new "Obama green-energy failure" list total of 50. At least $15 billion of "green" taxpayer money is either gone or still at risk, and the majority was funneled to Obama and Democrat cronies — percentage of cronyism is hoovering around 60% (29 of the 50), until I have time to dig further. 

 

This article is an encyclopedic reference for those who want to keep track of the details of how the president has been abusing his power and using the environmental movement to run interference for his own personal benefit and for the benefit of political donors.

Here is a list of just those companies that have failed. As noted, the article goes way beyond this, listing those recipients of green stimulus money that are also in trouble and may soon fail.

  1. Solyndra*: Received $535 million DOE loan and $25.1 million in California tax credit. Bankrupt: September 2011
  2. Abound Solar*Received part of a $60 million grant under the Bush administration, and was awarded a $400 million loan under Obama in December of 2010. Abound was awarded a $9.2-million loan from the Export-Import Bank in July 2011. Bankrupt: June 2012
  3. Beacon Power*Received more than $25 million in DOE grants and a DOE loan for $43 million. Bankrupt: October 2011 
  4. A123 Systems*: Received $390 million, of which $249 million of it was a Recovery Act GrantFiled for Bankruptcy October 16, 2012, and two companies are seeking to buy A123; Johnson Controls and the Chinese firm Wanxiang Group Corp.
  5. AES Eastern Energy/Energy Storage*: Received $17.1 million DOE conditional commitment on August 2, 2010. Bankrupt: December 31, 2011.
  6. Amonix*: Received $6 million in federal tax credits a $15.6 million grant from the DOE for research and development. Bankrupt: July 18, 2012 
  7. Azure Dynamics*: Received millions in stimulus funds and over $1.7 million in Michigan state tax credits. Bankrupt: March 27, 2012
  8. Babcock & Brown: Received $178 million in the largest federal (1603) stimulus wind grant in December 2009. Placed into voluntary liquidation: March 13, 2009
  9. Energy Conversion Devices Inc./Uni-Solar: Received a $13.3 million Stimulus tax credit. Bankrupt: February 2011.
  10. Ener1*: Received a $118.5 million DOE Stimulus grant. Bankrupt: January 26, 2011.
  11. Evergreen Solar, Inc.*: Received Stimulus funds, grants, tax-credits, low-interest loans and subsidies. Bankrupt: August 15, 2011 
  12. Konarka Technologies Inc.: Received $20 million in grants from government agencies such as the DOE and the Pentagon. Bankrupt: June 4, 2012.
  13. ADDITION Range Fuels*: Range Fuels: $162.25 million in government commitments since 2007, of which $64 million came from a USDA Biofuel loan in 2010 alone, despite financial and technical difficulties, and opposition inside the USDA. 
  14. Raser Technologies: Received $33 million Treasury Department Stimulus grant. Bankrupt: May 2, 2011. 
  15. SpectraWatt*: Received $500,000 grant from the Renewable Energy Lab via the Stimulus. Bankrupt: August 23, 2011
  16. Stirling Energy Systems: Received $7 million from a federal renewable-energy grant and was eligible for nearly $10.5 million in manufacturing September 28, 2011
  17. Thompson River Power LLC: Received $6.5 million in Stimulus funds from Section 1603. Bankrupt: July 2, 2012.
  18. Mountain Plaza, Inc. ($2 million); in our unconfirmed list
  19. Olsen’s Crop Service and Olsen’s Mills Acquisition Company ($10 million);
    in our unconfirmed list
  20. Nordic Windpower* ($16 million)
  21. Satcon ($3 million) As reported by the Heritage Foundation October 18, 2012, "A solar company that got a multi-million-dollar grant from the Department of Energy earlier this year announced Wednesday that it will file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, making it the second taxpayer-backed green energy company to file for bankruptcy this week." 
  22.  Willard and Kelsey Solar Group ($700,981) in our unconfirmed bankrupt list 
  23. ADDITION, October 23, 2012: Cardinal Fastener & Specialty Co.: Received $480,000 through the Section 48C Advanced Manufacturing Tax Credit Program. During Obama’s visit to Cardinal Fastener, he took a "green Recovery Act victory lap," and touted it as means for "Made-In-America Jobs" for Ohio. Yet, just two weeks after the Obama visit, Cardinal laid off 12 percent of its staff, and in June 2011, Cardinal Fastener filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Lastly, in January 2012, Cardinal Fastener was acquired by Germany’s Wurth Group for just $3.9 Million.

2. To follow on the data, a great analysis

Writing for the Huffington Post (of all places), energy economist Dr. Rob Bradley, CEO and founder of the Institute for Energy Research, has an insightful analysis of the politics of Obama’s green energy agenda. Bradley sums it up as follows:

Obama’s energy policy allocates taxpayer monies to time-disproven "green" (perpetually green?) technologies in a special-interest ruse.

Two special interests are benefitting from an energy policy that results in higher energy prices, less energy reliability and rising federal deficits. One is politically connected business that "rent-seek" in political venues. The profitability of ethanol, wind power, (off-grid) solar power, and electric cars is all about such special political favor, not underlying consumer demand. The second beneficiary is agenda-driven environmentalists who remain stuck to ecologically controversial energies to limit the natural growth of free-market capitalism.

No longer are the best energies determined by their BTU content, cost and chemistry; rather, the energy mix is stacked by lobbyists and politicians who tout "all of the above" so that the worst can edge-in with the best. Today, between four and five percent of U.S. energy is politically enabled rather than market-determined.

 

3. Ozone Report

The 2012 ozone season began on April 1 and each week during the ozone season this newsletter reports how many, if any, high ozone days have been experienced throughout the state during the previous week, where they were experienced, and how many have been recorded during the entire season to date. The ozone season ends on October 31. All reported data is from the North Carolina Division of Air Quality, which is part of the state’s Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

During the period October 22 to October 28 there were no reported high ozone readings on North Carolina’s ozone monitors. Since the beginning of the ozone season there have been 111 high ozone readings over 16 days on North Carolina monitors.

In June 2019 Roy Cordato retired from his full time position as Senior Economist and Resident Scholar at the John Locke Foundation and currently holds the position of Senior Economist Emeritus at the Foundation. From January 2001 to March 2017, he served as JLF’s first Vice President for Research.

 

About Roy Cordato

In addition to his emeritus position at JLF, Cordato holds the title of Lecturer at the School of Public and International Affairs at NC State University where he works with the Free Societies Project as faculty advisor for The Society for Politics, Economics, and the Law and The Austrian Economics Forum. Between September 2003 and May 2018, he was adjunct faculty in the Department of Economics at NC State University where, in addition to his work as advisor to the aforementioned student groups, he taught “Political Economy of the Market Process,” a course that he designed. Cordato also currently serves as Editor of Political Economy in the Carolinas, an interdisciplinary academic journal published by Classical Liberals in the Carolinas.

 

****************************************************

 

American Thinker.com

 

February 18, 2021

 

Two special interests are benefitting from an energy policy that results in higher energy prices, less energy reliability and rising federal deficits. One is politically connected business that "rent-seek" in political venues. The profitability of ethanol, wind power, (off-grid) solar power, and electric cars is all about such special political favor, not underlying consumer demand. The second beneficiary is agenda-driven environmentalists who remain stuck to ecologically controversial energies to limit the natural growth of free-market capitalism.

--Dr. Roy Cordato--

 

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Green New Deal Frozen in its Tracks

 

By Brian C. Joondeph
This past week America has been treated to some chilly weather. Records were broken across what Rush Limbaugh described as the fruited plains.

Kansas City broke a record low temperature set in 1936. Colorado Springs broke an 1895 record on Valentine’s Day. Dallas, Austin, and San Antonio also broke cold temperature records. Fort Collins broke a 121-year-old record.

Beyond America, the current Grand Solar Minimum is intensifying and so is winter, cooling the entire Northern Hemisphere.

Record cold and snow has buffeted much of the Northern Hemisphere of late: from northern Asia, to the majority of Europe, to practically ALL of North America — the NH is suffering a truly historic winter of 2020/21 as the Grand Solar Minimum intensifies.

I could go on, but you get the picture. It was a heckuva cold weekend.

At one time, extreme weather was blamed on global warming, but who could, with a straight face, attribute record setting cold temperatures to a warming planet? Conveniently the narrative changed a few years ago, just like the First Amendment also conveniently changed.

Last summer, riots and protests were peaceful assembly, and in early January, peaceful assembly changed to insurrection. Warming can be cooling and vice versa, under fluid definitions that change based on political circumstances.

Aside from Mother Nature, NASA is also raining on the global warming parade. Agency scientist Martin Mlynczak notes that sunspot activity on the surface of the sun has dropped so low that our outer atmosphere is losing heat energy, and that “If trends continue, it could soon set a Space Age record for cold.”

The scientist was quick to point out that, “there was no relationship between temperatures in space and that on earth.” Perhaps, or perhaps not. Scientists from the WHO also told us in January 2020 that there was “no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission of the novel coronavirus.” Dr Anthony Fauci last March told us “there’s no reason to be walking around with a mask.”

Welcome to science – educated guesses based on the best knowledge at the time, hopefully without influence from politics or popular culture.

Does the sun have an influence on global temperatures? Yes, according to NOAA.  Four factors affect global temperatures - carbon dioxide levels, volcanic eruptions, Pacific El Nino patterns and perhaps most important, the sun’s activity.

Carbon dioxide, despite representing only 0.04 percent of the atmosphere, is believed to contribute to global warming. What’s not clear is whether rising COlevels are a cause or effect of rising temperatures. Perhaps other factors warm the planet, and a warmer ocean is releasing CO2 into the atmosphere, bubbling out of the water, and may be associated with warmer temperatures, but as an effect rather than the cause.

Solar activity influences temperatures on Earth. One example is the “Maunder Minimum”, between 1645 and 1715 when sunspots were virtually nonexistent and the planet experienced a “Little Ice Age.” During the 12th and 13th centuries, solar activity was high, and Europe enjoyed a mild climate.

The climate changes; that’s not a revelation. From CBS News, “55 million years ago the Arctic was once a lot like Miami, with an average temperature of 74 degrees, alligator ancestors and palm trees.” This was long before airplanes and SUVs. In fact it was long before humans existed, with homo sapiens only 200,000 to 300,000 years old.

Previous ice ages came and went, millions of years ago, through naturally occurring cooling and warming cycles. Far more recently, only 20,000 years ago, mile thick ice covered most of Canada and the northern contiguous United States, but the climate warmed and the ice melted, without help from Al Gore or Greta.

Also overlooked are the benefits of higher carbon dioxide levels and warmer temperatures on Earth, the “greening of the planet” as I described  previously. CO2 is plant food, and along with water, sunlight, and warm temperatures, promote photosynthesis. Dry and cool climates, adding more CO2 and warmer temperatures, may become fertile, supporting plant life to feed humans and animals.

“CO2 fertilization” led to an 11 percent increase in foliage cover from 1982 to 2010 across many arid regions of the world. Advocates for the poor and disenfranchised should be cheering any warming as cooling would lead to global starvation and misery.

Given that the Earth is 4.5 billion years old, and in the space of 50 years, we have gone from global cooling alarmism in the 1970s to the global warming warnings of the past decade, it seems we are a bit presumptuous assuming present observations are relevant in the far longer scheme of global climate and temperatures.

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, “The climate system is a coupled non-linear chaotic system, and therefore the long-term prediction of future climate states is not possible.” Meaning we can predict the week’s weather, but not the climate decades or centuries into the future.

Yet the media and ruling classes are pushing a narrative, exemplified by this headline from National Geographic, “Why cold weather doesn’t mean climate change is fake.” Neither does warm weather, hurricanes, or tornados. The climate has and always will be changing.

Instead of tapdancing in order to lump frigid temperatures with man-made global warming, there should be a discussion of the geopolitical ramifications of America’s energy policy. Despite the desire of the current administration to “go green,” practicalities make this a nonstarter.

Ask Germany. Its millions of solar panels are covered in ice and are useless, as are its 30,000 wind turbines, frozen and not generating any electricity. Germany may these days be longing for coal or nuclear-powered plants providing electricity, on demand, regardless of the weather outside.

Ice storms in Texas froze half the wind generating capacity, knocking out power and sending electricity prices through the roof. Wind accounts for 23 percent of Texas electricity. Suppose under Biden that figure jumps to 75 or 90 percent?

4 million Texans lost power during this recent freeze, a time when they needed it the most. How many Texans died due to Green New Deal power sources being frozen shut?

As a delicious irony, helicopters are being used to deice frozen wind turbine blades, using about 100 times as much energy to deice compared to energy saved from using the windmills for power. Not such a green new deal.

If President Biden makes good on his promise to “end fossil fuel,” leaving us dependent on hostile foreign countries and weather dependent alternative “green” sources for our energy needs, along with the current lowest solar activity in over 200 years, we may be in for a long cold winter. Biden wasn’t kidding when he warned of a “dark winter.” Bundle up.

Brian C Joondeph is a physician and writer. He is on sabbatical from social media.

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