As part of President Obama’s “war on coal” and fossil fuels in general, his administration has provided more than $100 billion to so called “green tech” or “clean tech” companies, most of which have gone bankrupt or somehow “disappeared” the money.
CBS 60 Minutes aired a show on January 5, 2014, exploring part of this issue (see video and transcript here). “Hoping to create innovation and jobs, he [Obama] committed north of a $100 billion in loans, grants and tax breaks to Cleantech. But instead of breakthroughs, the sector suffered a string of expensive tax-funded flops. Suddenly Cleantech was a dirty word.”
And China is snapping up some of these failed companies. CBS notes that the Chinese auto parts company Wanxiang has bought up 27 plants in 13 states with some 6,000 American workers. Most of these failed companies made batteries for electric and hybrid vehicles. A company spokesman says that every third car made in the U.S. now has Wanxiang parts.” Made in America takes on a new meaning under Obama.
On January 6, 2014, Fox News’ Kelly File program took up the story and added some things that CBS left out (see video here). According to Fox News, of the approximately $100 billion that the Obama gave to green tech companies, 80 percent went to donors to Obama’s campaign and to other Democrats. For every dollar those fund-raisers gave, they made back $25,000. Such a deal.
Back in October, 2012, the Heritage Foundation provided a list of 34 companies that received government subsidies or loan guarantees but had gone bankrupt or are laying off workers and heading for bankruptcy (see article here). Heritage opines, “The government’s picking winners and losers in the energy market has cost taxpayers billions of dollars, and the rate of failure, cronyism, and corruption at the companies receiving the subsidies is substantial.”
The money wasted on “green energy” could have been better spent on other things such as finding a cure for cancer. Or the government could have saved us all money by not spending it at all. The real question is “where did all that money go”– down the toilet or to some off-shore bank accounts?
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