Have you ever been in a heated argument with your loved one? Sure you have.
You're arguing that your favorite restaurant is open on Sundays and you should dine out there tonight while your companion disagrees saying it's closed on Sundays. The argument gets intensified while driving around looking for a place to eat for the night until suddenly, a radio advertisement for that very restaurant you are arguing for comes on.
“Open Monday to Saturday”, it says. Your argument, your entire persuasive evidence, and everything you fought for, is thrown out the window. You're forced to sit and stew in your own misfortune and admit to being wrong, while your counterpart just sits their grinning.
There are few things more uncomfortable and unnerving than that feeling.
Barack Obama is feeling that way about now...
One of the key points the president made in his 2012 State of the Union address was the Energy Department's relationship with private, green initiatives as part of the president's stimulus package.
“In three years, our partnership with the private sector has already positioned America to be the world's leading manufacturer of high-tech batteries,” Obama declared in his speech.
Well if that “positioning” the president is discussing is in the line for Chapter 11 papers, than he's right. According to Business Week, Ener1 Inc., the battery company being referenced by the president, received a $118 U.S. Energy Department grant to make electric-car batteries and just two days following the State of the Union address, the company filed for bankruptcy.
Under President Barack Obama’s economic stimulus package, the Energy Department awarded grants in an attempt to create a U.S. electric-car industry. Ener1 subsidiary EnerDel was the grant recipient and has received about $55 million of its grant so far. A spokesman for the Energy Department, Jen Stutsman, said the department would provide comment soon.
As of December 31st, the company listed assets of $73.9 million and debt of $90.5 million, claiming heavy competition from battery developers in China and South Korea “which generally have a lower cost manufacturing base” were to blame. Also the lower labor and raw materials costs in Asia prove to be far too difficult to withstand.
The stimulus money, which went to Ener1 subsidiary EnerDel, was focused on promoting renewable energy storage technology for electrical grid use as well as continuing to be used in electric cars like the Chevrolet Volt.
From The Foundry,
Vice President Biden lauded Ener1 as a stimulus success one year ago – to the day. The stimulus was, Biden claimed, “not just creating new jobs, but sparking whole new industries that will ensure our competitiveness for decades to come — industries like electric vehicle manufacturing.” He went on to single out Ener1 specifically.
Obama's 2010 State of the Union address mentioned Solyndra as another successful investment by the government in the private-sector green-energy industry. Solyndra received a $535 million loan guarantee from the government before going bankrupt in September.
The Solyndra upending caused many Obama-objectors to ask questions of campaign donors and lobbying which later showed that the company's top executives were “enthusiastic Obama campaign donors” and “spent nearly $1.8 million lobbying the government” before receiving the loan.
Then there is Beacon Power Corp. which sought Chapter 11 protection in October listing assets of $72 million and debt totaling $47 million, including $39.1 million owed on a government-guaranteed loan.
From Business Week,
“Payoffs on these public investments don’t always come right away,” Obama said in his State of the Union speech on Jan. 24. “Some technologies don’t pan out; some companies fail. But I will not walk away from the promise of clean energy.”
Obama added that he would not “cede the wind or solar or battery industry to China or Germany because we refuse to make the same commitment here.”
More of these Solyndra-type stories are becoming more well-known as renewable companies struggle to stay afloat. Amonix Inc., a California-based solar company, couldn't even last a year since opening it's largest manufacturing plant in Las Vegas before the company laid off nearly two-thirds of its workforce, last week. Flextronics Industrial, the Singapore solar panel manufacturer that partnered with Amonix to staff the new $18 million, 214,000-square-foot plant and let go around 200 of its 300-plus employees.
Amonix did not receive any U.S. stimulus funding, but they are feeling the global pressure for green energy. But sadly, it looks like green energy in the U.S. is still just not affordable enough to be the booming industry that Obama plans, and for now he continues to face the embarrassment of funding companies that turn belly up shortly afterwards.
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