Reply With Quote
.........a profitable company
...going away either.
Resignation doesn't end Solyndra questions, Republicans say
.........a profitable company
........a duck billed platapus
........a film about teen angst
...a missed ellipses opportunity.
Prior to this, has the govt ever loaned a company money that later went bankrupt?
We bought GM.
But, it's not that we loaned the money...it's that we loaned the money in spite of our own financial people telling us it was was bad deal. , they even predicted, to the very month, when Solyndra would go belly up.
No only that, the Obama administration was trying to push through another half billion in loans to Solyndra as they were swirling the drain.
GREENWOOD VILLAGE - A U.S. Department of Agriculture spokesman would not say Wednesday how much money taxpayers recouped, if any, from Open Range Communications, which a wireless industry website said is making massive layoffs and no longer taking new customers.
Fierce Wireless, which bills itself as the wireless industry's daily monitor, reported Wednesday that Open Range is cutting 122 of 170 positions and no longer marketing its rural wireless broadband Internet services to new customers.
According to the article written by Denver-based reporter Mike Dano, Open Range is paring down to a skeleton staff and shopping for a buyer for the company.
Open Range was approved for a $267 million loan from the USDA's Rural Development Utilities Program in 2008, during the Bush administration.
Tech writer Paul Kapustka, who runs the website Sidecut Reports, has long been skeptical of Open Range's business plan and what he called a high level of secrecy regarding its operations.
"I don't think there were ever enough customers to make this viable," Kapustka said. "It was always, I think, a flawed idea from the start."
In March 2010, Open Range announced that it was partnering with satellite wireless provider LightSquared in support of President Obama's National Wireless Initiative, which calls for a $5 billion government subsidy for rural wireless access.
Open Range intended to provide its rural broadband services through LightSquared's network. LightSquared has been criticized by Republican lawmakers who have called for an investigation of whether the Obama administration improperly advanced the company's effort to construct a wireless broadband network.
An Open Range spokesman declined comment on the layoffs Wednesday. He did not respond to questions about the loan money.
"I think it's gone," Dano said. "When companies shut down, they shut down. They shut down because they have no more money left. So I would suspect that none of it is going to be paid back."
A USDA spokesman did not answer 9Wants to Know's questions about the loan amount, releasing a short statement reading, "Open Range is an active borrower with USDA (RUS). The loan closing date was January 9, 2009. USDA is closely monitoring the situation."
Should we be clamoring for another investigation?
Will the GOP Congress do it?
I don't know, maybe you should ask.
But, I would say if communications surface showing the amount of concern, within the administration (not some reporter's musings), that Solyndra generated and, still, the administration went ahead with the loan; absolutely, let's appoint a special prosecutor and get to the bottom of all this ed up government subsidizing failed business.
I find it interesting Open Range is associated with Lightsquared, another of Obama's pets.
Let me know when you find the information implicating President Bush, Vice President Cheney, or the Secretaries of DOE or USDA as being explicitly told by their bean counters (as was Obama about Solyndra) and still forging ahead.
I think government loans, of any kind, are stupid. That's not the place of government.
I could be wrong but, I suspect that an investigation of the Open Range Communications debacle will show a couple of things...
1) President Bush nor Vice President Cheney had near the interest in the loan as did President Obama and Vice President Biden in the Solyndra loan. They may not have even been aware the loan was made.
and
2) The loan to Open Range was made based on guidelines established for that program and that some low-level career bureaucrat (probably a Democrat) signed off on it.
Like I said, I could be wrong but, you're going to have to choke up some administration memos from bean-counters and a video of President Bush standing in the lobby of Open Range Communications, singing their praises, before I believe it rises to the level of the Solyndra scandal.
Obama Fundraiser Pushed Solyndra Deal From Inside
An elite Obama fundraiser hired to help oversee the administration's energy loan program pushed and prodded career Department of Energy officials to move faster in approving a loan guarantee for Solyndra, even as his wife's law firm was representing the California solar company, according to internal emails made public late Friday.
"How hard is this? What is he waiting for?" wrote Steven J. Spinner, a high-tech consultant and energy investor who raised at least $500,000 for the candidate before being appointed to a key job helping oversee the energy loan guarantee program. "I have OVP [the Office of the Vice President] and WH [the White House] breathing down my neck on this."
So the OVP and WH are actively pressuring officials for answers and not actively trying to hinder the investigation.
Thanks yoni.
I don't care about the investigation. To me the exciting part is why Solyndra did not succeed: Falling Solar prices. Who's been beating that drum here for years??
There actually is a line between crony capitalism and illegal corruption. It looks like the Solyndra story is getting closer and closer to the latter.
Drip
Drip
Drip
Photoshops are almost as rhetorically damaging as youtubes.
Almost.
I don't care about the investigation. To me the exciting part is why Solyndra did not succeed: Falling Solar prices. Who's been beating that drum here for years??
Yeah, that was worth $535 Million dollars.I don't care about the investigation. To me the exciting part is why Solyndra did not succeed: Falling Solar prices. Who's been beating that drum here for years??
Solyndra failed because their technology innovatively SUCKED and they were NEVER going to be compe ive and knew that before they built the new factory.
Yes, but both the falling solar retail prices and falling silicon prices has been a normal trend. It was incompetent or criminal to not recognize this in the financing.I don't care about the investigation. To me the exciting part is why Solyndra did not succeed: Falling Solar prices. Who's been beating that drum here for years??
Interesting...
WH Budget Official: Oh, We Made Far Worse Loans Than Solyndra
More at the link.Happy Monday, Obama administration. According to a new tranche of emails obtained by ABC News, the political wreckage of the Solyndra scandal could get significantly more grisly before all is said and done. In one particularly incriminating note, a staffer at the White House's Office of Management and Budget candidly frets that "bad days" lie ahead:
Emails released earlier this month show that at least one official of the Office of Management and Budget worried that Solyndra was just the tip of the iceberg when it came to ill-conceived government loans to green energy companies. “(W)hat’s terrifying is that after looking at some of the ones that came next, this one [Solyndra] started to look better,” the official emailed. “Bad days are coming.” Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Government on October 7 wrote to Energy Secretary Dr. Steven Chu to see just what other problematic loans might exist. Specifically, Issa is seeking “additional information regarding the loans approved on the final day of the program,” ones made to First Solar Inc, SunPower Corp., and ProLogis Inc.
The questions clearly suggest the concern that the Department of Energy officials in charge of the loan program did not conduct due diligence before sending billions in loan guarantees out the door — a concern that seems to have been shared by officials of the Department of Management and Budget.
Wow...
Looks like the Obama administration wanted to bail out the investors for a failing business, before it failed!
This may be one of the "far worse loans"...
Solar Firm That Received $1.2 Billion Federal Loan Plagued by Financial Problems
With the Solyndra scandal still swirling, the Obama administration is under pressure to reveal the financial condition of the solar companies that received $4.75 billion in similar federal loan guarantees on the last day of the program.
Republican lawmakers on two House committees are seeking details about the loans given to First Solar, SunPower Corp. and ProLogis. Of those three companies, troubling financial revelations have emerged about SunPower, which received a $1.2 billion loan, more than twice the money approved for Solyndra, which filed for bankruptcy last month after receiving a $528 million loan.
Issa will be right on it!
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Posting Permissions
