Rebane's Ruminations
September 2011
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George Rebane

This crap we’ve been hearing about a handful of solar tech companies, led by Solyndra, going bankrupt is small potatoes and the tip of the iceberg, the remainder of which Team Obama and the Dems hope that never sees the light of day.  For all intents and purposes, there are no successful and sustainable green tech companies that have gotten the long green from the feds.

GreenKoolAid Last night we heard that the administration is touting that they have created 3,545 new green jobs from an expenditure of $38,600,000,000 (yep, that’s over 38 billion dollars).  That computes to spending $10,880,000 per job.  As I’ve pointed out, when other people’s money runs out, so will the jobs and the companies that are providing them.  Now that is some serious crony socialism that the nation’s progressives hope the common folk never understand.

In the meantime we keep hearing of the newest tax’n spend posterchild lamenting that he’s not paying enough tax, and telling us all that the feds should raise taxes on those who invest and create new jobs.  The country’s response can be heard echoing daily across this great land, ‘Write a f@%king check Warren!!’

[20sep2011 update]  Tonight we heard that Congress is starting hearings on Solyndra, having subpoenaed members of that bankrupt company’s executive team to testify this Friday.  They, of course, will all be taking the Fifth.  And after a ridiculously harrowing day on the Hill, they’ll probably gather to take another fifth.  Congress will get nothing out of these people, and they will even get less when they subpoena Administration types to answer questions as to why the half billion was lent to a company that even the guy running the corner newspaper stand knew was gonna go belly up.  The government folks will all use ‘executive privilege’ to zip their lips.

But not to worry, it will all come out.  And the later they start singing, the worse it will be for the White House.  In the meantime, we taxpayers do have something to worry about – namely that there are billions more that must be quickly spent on other green tech companies just waiting out there with their little beaks open and ready for their stimulus hit.  Given the spate of bankruptcies, sanity would dictate that further such giveaways should be halted until we find out what in tarnation is going on at the Dept of Energy (a question that’s been hanging for the last thirty years).  But sanity turned up MIA years ago inside the Beltway.  The Senate is determined to sprinkle those additional billions on temporary green jobs, come hell or high water – nothing will stop those Dems playing to their far left base now that these people are ready to toss Obama under the bus.

Now don’t put away your funny bone yet, there’s another joke from the yokels.  It turns out that the 1,000+ Solyndra ex-employees can receive government paid retraining while drawing unemployment according to Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT).  This is kind of weird in itself, and doubly so when you consider that these former employees were already trained up in how to work a clean energy, green tech, environmentally supportive, ya-da ya-da company.  Hasn’t everyone – from President Obama, through California’s Moonbeam, down to Mary Nichols of CARB (remember AB32, it’s still here), and even the considerable chorus of local lefties – been telling everyone and their mother that green/clean tech is where all the new jobs are coming from?  So why do they need retraining on our nickel?

Posted in , ,

61 responses to “The Real Green Jobs Scandal (updated 20sep2011)”

  1. Russ Steele Avatar

    Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway fighting IRS over $1 billion in taxes???? Hypocrite?

    Like

  2. Mikey McD Avatar

    Great post George. Great post.

    Like

  3. Barry Pruett Avatar

    Question: If Warren Buffett’s secretary pays more taxes than him (as a percentage I gather), why not lower her taxes and decrease spending instead of raising his taxes? Why is the liberal answer always tax more and spend more?

    Like

  4. Kathy Jones Avatar
    Kathy Jones

    I guess the only thing I can do as an American is make the personal choice not to support Berkshire Hathaway.
    Go to Wiki and see who falls under its ownership umbrella (Gieco Insurance, See’s Candy, Fruit of the Loom, R.C Willey Home Furnishings, Shaw floor coverings, Russell Athletic, etc.!)

    Like

  5. Brad Croul Avatar
    Brad Croul

    Green jobs scandal is just the lastest. Don’t forget the $60 billion lost to waste and fraud in Iraq or the national security spending spree still ongoing…
    http://projects.washingtonpost.com/top-secret-america/articles/a-hidden-world-growing-beyond-control/

    Like

  6. John S Avatar
    John S

    The other day I saw (on TV) a comparison to what is going on in the Obama administration to what we used to see in super markets a while back, remember those 2 minute give aways. A lady gets a shopping cart and for 2 minutes she races around the super market trying to stuff anything she can in the shopping cart. That is exactly what our president is doing with the treasury, trying to spend as much as he possibly can, rewarding his friends, before his time runs out. Obama thinks there is just no limit to the money and he needs more to get the job done. OMG, Obama must go.

    Like

  7. Russ Steele Avatar

    Oh My, Another green product failure:
    Newly formulated laundry detergents can wash most clothes perfectly well in cold water, manufacturers say, but customers are stubbornly refusing to turn down the temperature. Although some of these detergents have been available for several years, customers cling to mom’s age-old advice that hot water washes best — squandering energy and contributing to greenhouse gas emissions.
    Even in Germany, where consumers tend to be more environmentally attuned than in the United States, manufacturers have discovered that cold-water washing is such a hard sell that they have relegated claims about it — and the attendant green benefits — to the fine print, choosing to emphasize other attributes.

    Like

  8. bill tozer Avatar
    bill tozer

    I am not ready to thrown Warren Buffet under the bus. First, he is the richest man in the USA and is speaking his mind per his right and perspective. 2. He draws only about 100K/year salary, so his earned income is under the $250k millionaires limit. 3) He has most all his capital gains and dividends routed directly into his foundation and enjoys the tax deferred, tax exempt, and tax reduced rates of his capital gains. So, from his point of view, he does indeed pay less earned income taxes than his secretary, far less if his secretary is single and under 65 years of age. Still, I don’t see how taxing Warren more would keep the government from pre-spending every penny they project will be rolling into their (their, not the people’s) coffers.

    Like

  9. Mikey McD Avatar

    It’s never about spending with these Keynesian drunkards; it’s always about revenue (from the wealthy).

    Like

  10. Todd Juvinall Avatar
    Todd Juvinall

    Sorry but I don’t trust the drunkards any more.

    Like

  11. Mikey McD Avatar

    Buffet is old and cannot take his money with him… even if he could it’s likely to burn.

    Like

  12. bill tozer Avatar
    bill tozer

    here is at least one government official who is trying to avoid another green scandal: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-09-19/kocourek-says-czechs-can-t-afford-more-than-13-renewables.html

    Like

  13. George Rebane Avatar

    BillT 605pm – Am not sure you addressed the problem with Brother Warren. Of course he’s rich and can speak his mind, and lament his low taxes. It’s his desire to commandeer other people’s wallets that is making the news, and used by Obama to demagogue the voters with the ‘Buffett tax’ on the rich. For that we can throw him under the bus, since he can fix his low tax problem all by himself without getting the government more into our affairs than it already is.

    Like

  14. bill tozer Avatar
    bill tozer

    Dr Rebane, you said it best in your writings above: write the friggin check, Warren. Yes, I agree with your sentiments that Warren has moved from private citizen to a pawn in Obama’s wickedness. Being knowingly used by Barrak Hoover Obama as a tool for raising the capital gains rates will be a bigger job killer than anything we have seen yet and Mr. Buffet may end up being the poster boy for Mr. CACA For Brains. But, then again, Mr. Buffet has more important things on his mind, such as tonight’s bridge game. Warren will find a way to make a bundle off this, he always does. Glad good ol’ boy Warren Buffet’s Will Rogers act didn’t fool ya. With Berkshire Hathaway battling the IRS for years now over unpaid taxes, Warren is wise to keep his friends close and his enemies closer.

    Like

  15. Russ Steele Avatar

    More green jobs on the way to China: Boston Power moves ahead by moving to China
    Battery maker Boston Power is shifting its operations to China to capitalize on the booming electric-vehicle market.
    The Westborough, Mass.-based company today announced that it has raised $125 million from Chinese venture capital firm GSR Ventures as part of an expansion into China. In addition to the private equity, the company is receiving grants, low-interest loans, and other incentives from the Chinese government, which will lead to construction of a large-scale battery manufacturing plant.

    The only place that seem to be creating green jobs is China. Al Gore call Obama and let him know where all the green jobs went!

    Like

  16. bill tozer Avatar
    bill tozer

    Russ, all these green jobs are creating a lot energy….by burning our greenbacks. Hope the EPA approves.

    Like

  17. bill tozer Avatar
    bill tozer

    here is another way to burn up some of the greenbacks to create green jobs:http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-09-19/electric-vehicles-led-by-leaf-fail-to-connect-consumers-cars.htm

    Like

  18. RL Crabb Avatar

    Better watch out, fellas, it looks like the Buffet disease is catching on….
    http://blogmaverick.com/2011/09/19/the-most-patriotic-thing-you-can-do-2/
    Actually, I think everyone should pay some fed tax, even us po’ folk. If you voted for a Democrat or a Republican in the last twenty years, you/we are all responsible for this debt crisis.

    Like

  19. Russ Steele Avatar

    George,
    You wrote:
    It turns out that the 1,000+ Solyndra ex-employees can receive government paid retraining while drawing unemployment according to Senator Orin Hatch (R-UT).
    Double compensations could be a way to buy the employee’s cooperation in any ongoing cover up. Talk out of turn and your are out of the training program. Just a thought

    Like

  20. Douglas Keachie Avatar
    Douglas Keachie

    Impulse Devices, locally,is/was paid to do fusion research by the Feds, along with a bunch of schools. How come none of the Rebane’s Regulars have taken aim at them?

    Like

  21. Paul Emery Avatar
    Paul Emery

    Also they don’t mention the trillions paid out in support for useless wars which is largely taxpayer subsidies for hi tech industry.

    Like

  22. Todd Juvinall Avatar
    Todd Juvinall

    Obama and his minions have brought corruption in politics to a new level. The 550 billion pissed away and stolen by Solyndra could have paved a lot of roads, taught a lot of kids and cured a lot of disease. Now, the reason I say this is because that is what liberals like the local lefty hacks tell us about the expenditure of government money they disagree with (from R Congress or Presidents). I want PaulE and BenE to relentlessly chastise the Obama Administration (and Harry Reid etal) on this waste of money as they do with their endless carping about Bush/Cheney and the right. Oh, they may mention it once or twice to be PC but the fact they constantly bring Bush and the wars into every discussion on any issue of monetary expenditure is certainly totally boring any more. The waste of these green programs was well known by the right in the first place. When we can’t even get Bernanke to release the names and amounts of the recipients of TARP and the other programs we are in deep doo doo in America. The graft is breathtaking.

    Like

  23. Paul Emery Avatar
    Paul Emery

    It’s a pittance compared to the money wasted in useless wars. Trillions..
    TARP was a Bush program.

    Like

  24. George Rebane Avatar

    Well OK then, the current and future waste on the Solyndras and Impulse Devices (never heard of them) are justified and beyond reproach because the government has foolishly spent money in the past. I kinda like the chutzpah of that kind of argumentation – cuts it off neat and clean, next case please.

    Like

  25. Mikey McD Avatar

    Bush let the USA down. Obama has let the USA down. The answer is not which politicians to empower (or blame) the answer is less power to politicians. Who made the decision to go to war? Put every American into a house? Take the dollar off of gold standard? Empowered The FED?….. POLITICIANS OF AN ENORMOUS GOVERNMENT bought and paid for by special interests. Time to right-size our government. Limit the size of government and you will limit the power of special interests.

    Like

  26. Paul Emery Avatar
    Paul Emery

    I never said they were justified only that the problem is minute compared to the waste spent on subsidizing high tech industry by engaging in useless wars.
    By the way, here’s Cheney on TARP last night
    “If we hadn’t done what we did with TARP, I think we’d have been in big, big trouble, much worse than we are.
    KING: And so when a Tea Party voter railed against that, is it just they don’t understand, they don’t understand the complexity of it, they don’t understand that moment?
    CHENEY: Well, they don’t agree with me. That’s their prerogative. “

    Like

  27. Todd Juvinall Avatar
    Todd Juvinall

    PaulE, we all agree on TARP, but you always leave out that Obama came back to DC to vote YES on it during the campaign. Why do you leave that out? TARP funds need to be transparent and of course they are not. I want to know why the were not spent for the things we were told they were for. My last post as usual goes unanswered by you but that is SOP for liberals. Always answering a question with a question, and we think Bernanke is an obfuscator!
    Oh, and 550 million is not a pittance. It is taxpayers money (or debt) and it could run Nevada County’s budget for three or four years. I think we are being 1984’d to think billions are nothing and trillions are next.

    Like

  28. George Rebane Avatar

    Even with TARP, some of us recall Ludwig von Mises admonition, “Do nothing, sooner!”

    Like

  29. Paul Emery Avatar
    Paul Emery

    I am not defending Obama. I am only noting that TARP was a Bush solution to a Bush problem. It’s Obama’s now for sure.
    Yes Mikey
    Let’s adopt a Ron Paul foreign policy and bring our troops home and save trillions of dollars by eliminating make work for military contractors.

    Like

  30. Todd Juvinall Avatar
    Todd Juvinall

    I posted the cost ticker which is at about 1.5 trillion.

    Like

  31. Russ Steele Avatar

    I love it when liberals like Paul fail to examine the root of a problem, especially the TARP issue. As I recall it was all about bad loans in the housing market, loans that were forced on the banks by Congress. Remember Congressman Rangel telling Bush that Freddy and Fanny we in good shape, no need for reform. The Bush administration recognized the problem that was created by Congress, and was trying to fix it. It was Rangel’s Committee that insisted the banks make loans to people that could not repay them. Then if you recall, the TARP money was never used to buy up the toxic loans after Bush left office. Now, I ask Paul was this ALL Bush’s fault! Paul please make your case that TARP was ALL Bush’s fault! Where is the smoking gun?

    Like

  32. D. King Avatar
    D. King

    George asks:
    “So why do they need retraining on our nickel?”
    Well George, we need to train them for future jobs in the new reality of sustainability…blah, blah, blah. As to our nickels; I complained about my nickels until I saw a man with no nickels…very sad.
    I think the EBT is the solution!
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o64Fz-KW1Dk&feature=player_embedded

    Like

  33. D. King Avatar
    D. King

    Russ said:
    “I love it when liberals like Paul fail to examine the root of a problem…”
    You mean like this Russ?
    Democrats in their own words Covering up the Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Scam that caused our Economic Crisis.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MGT_cSi7Rs

    Like

  34. Douglas Keachie Avatar
    Douglas Keachie

    I suppose then, you’ve never ehard of Coach Flo and Nevada Union Football?
    http://www.askcoachflo.com/?p=91
    Interesting that there is such a disconnect in what I thought was a fairly tight hitech community up here, or maybe Rebane’s Regulars are out of the main loop? Coach Flo and Impulse Devices, there is a connection.

    Like

  35. Douglas Keachie Avatar
    Douglas Keachie

    I’m not voting for Obama….I’ll try this lady instead:
    “There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own. Nobody. You built a factory out there — good for you. But I want to be clear. You moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for. You hired workers the rest of us paid to educate. You were safe in your factory because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for. You didn’t have to worry that marauding bands would come and seize everything at your factory… Now look. You built a factory and it turned into something terrific or a great idea — God Bless! Keep a Big Hunk of it. But part of the underlying social contract is you take a hunk of that and pay forward for the next kid who comes along.”
    ~Elizabeth Warren

    Like

  36. Douglas Keachie Avatar
    Douglas Keachie

    So I guess you didn’t know that coach Flo of NU football is also one of the executives of Impulse Devices? I guess the hitech community up here is not as tight as I thought, or maybe George is out of the loop?

    Like

  37. George Rebane Avatar

    DougK – if your “main loop” is up here in the foothills, that explains a lot of things. I do confess that I’m not in that loop as tight as you would recommend.
    And looking a little more into Impulse Devices Inc brought up some curious information. IDI has been doing research in sonofusion or bubble fusion since 1999. Not clear who funds them, but govt funding is implied. By 2004, they reported some early results claiming that momentary fusion had occurred twice. In 2005 they got together with some universities to form a professional society for sonofusion research. It promptly went silent (last site update Jan 2005). I have a call in to IDI’s technical staff seeking some information on what they might have published in this area since 2005.
    Since then sonofusion research, and even the existence of sonofusion, has been a topic of doubt and controversy that even reaches into national accusations of scientific fraud. IDI has published nothing on sonofusion for years, and is now claiming to work in the fields of “health, environment, and nutrition” – perfect stuff from Nevada County. In the meantime the hullabaloo about sonofusion energy seems to have quietly died down with the company (nor anyone else) making no new announcements about its research, let alone progress.
    In sum, I’d like to hear more recent news on IDI from anyone else who is in the know to really get a feel for the power and glory of Nevada County’s “main loop”, and reasons how one should deport themselves with respect to said loop.

    Like

  38. Scott Obermuller Avatar

    Douglas – Dizzy Lizzie is confused and ignorant of how things are paid for and how things get done in this country. We all pay for and use the infrastructure. It’s not the way she implies. If some one has built up a company using trucks, then that person has paid an enormous sum of money to use those trucks on the roads. The idea that someone else has paid for everything and the company owner just free loads is a revolting lie. You and I have paid our share to use our cars and that successful person has already paid far more than you or I. She really steps off the cliff when she brings up education. Most business owners (and colleges and universities) are constantly bemoaning the lack of quality of the public education system. But we are still paying an idiotic sum to the schools to crank out the latest crop of dunces. That woman should be forced to work about 70 hours a week for a few years and start her own company. After that she would be down at the Tea Party rallies as the head speaker. BTW – I note that she was the mis-manager of TARP. I have seen her on TV and she has no clue how the free-market economy is supposed to work. She is also a buddy of M. Moore. Enough said.

    Like

  39. George Rebane Avatar

    Well said ScottO. Proposing that since people come together to fund roads etc for all to use makes everyone using such infrastructure beholden to the collective was a big point that Lenin pushed a century ago when he denigrated capitalism and individual initiative and risk taking. It is only the ones who didn’t pay squat for the infrastructure that are beholden to the ones who did. And today that beholden percentage is nearing 50%.

    Like

  40. Russ Steele Avatar

    D. King,
    Thanks for the link. This is exactly what I was writing about.

    Like

  41. Todd Juvinall Avatar
    Todd Juvinall

    Maybe Dougie can go interview Lowell Robinson and get educated on how much he pays to the state and feds in fees and taxes to put his trucks and trailer on the road. If he does he should come back here and apologize profusely then self flagellate in the public square.

    Like

  42. Paul Emery Avatar
    Paul Emery

    Russ
    You’ve got it exactly wrong about Bush and Fannie and Freddie. He was a big supporter of more loans to lower incomes.
    “NEW YORK (CNN/Money) – Home builders, realtors and others are preparing to fight a Bush administration plan that would require Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to increase financing of homes for low-income people, a home builder group said Thursday.
    The National Association of Home Builders, along with the National Association of Realtors and the Mortgage Bankers Association, are drafting a letter to Alphonso Jackson, secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), arguing that middle-income home buyers are the ones that will get hurt by the proposed plan, the NAHB told CNN/Money.
    In April, the HUD proposed new rules that would raise the percentage of loans bought by the two government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) that finance borrowers whose incomes are at or below the median for their area, according to the Wall Street Journal .”
    http://money.cnn.com/2004/06/17/real_estate/lowcost_housing/index.htm

    Like

  43. Greg Goodknight Avatar
    Greg Goodknight

    Interesting how so few pick up on the real damage caused by fed loan guarantees to guaranteed losers like solyndra… Those private loans went to Green Inc rather than a company that had a chance to grow but couldnt. We lose on multiple levels.

    Like

  44. Todd Juvinall Avatar
    Todd Juvinall

    Golly and I hought Bush tried to get a number of laws and rules done to fix Fannie and Freddie. I guess I must have been out of the atmosphere PaulE since I never knew that. Actually, Bush and his people tried to head off the mess, that is why there were hearings in Congress. Remember PaulE, those testifying all was well no need to fix anything? Barney Frank (sleeping with a FreddieMac executive) and Maxine Waters, (husband a stockholder in a bank), you remember now?

    Like

  45. Paul Emery Avatar
    Paul Emery

    Todd
    The article speaks for itself. Everybody was on the bandwagon while the gettin’ was good.
    Here’s more
    “Lawrence B. Lindsey, Mr. Bush’s first chief economics adviser, said there was little impetus to raise alarms about the proliferation of easy credit that was helping Mr. Bush meet housing goals.
    “No one wanted to stop that bubble,” Mr. Lindsey said. “It would have conflicted with the president’s own policies.”
    http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/21/business/21admin.html

    Like

  46. Russell Steele Avatar

    So, are we now in agreement, that it was not ALL Bush’s fault? “Every buddy was on the band wagon.” It was not just Bush’s fault, it was the current culture in Washington. Democrat or Republican all lose their good common sense when they have access to other peoples money?

    Like

  47. Paul Emery Avatar
    Paul Emery

    You got it Russ. As long as the money was flowing nobody wanted to get in the way. Have you read The Big Short by Michael Lewis? It’s a good look at how really smart people saw what was happening and bet on the collapse and made billions. It’s to bad our elected officials didn’t see it coming.
    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/12/AR2010031202291.html
    Also the film “Inside Job” which starts with Iceland’s collapse and works it’s way to the housing collapse and TARP taxpayer bailouts which was the ultimate hedge fund
    http://www.sonyclassics.com/insidejob/

    Like

  48. D. King Avatar
    D. King

    “Inside Job”
    George Soros Paul?
    The one worlders are the heros?
    http://tinyurl.com/3qnub6o
    We know who they are.

    Like

  49. Scott Obermuller Avatar

    Not so fast, Paul. It was the Dems that protected the criminal activity at Fannie/Freddie. There are You Tube videos showing the Rs trying to rein in the corruption and B. Frank, etal, telling the regulators to go pound sand. Frank Raines ginned up false figures to get himself a huge multi million dollar pay day and you on the left just let him do it. Fat cats that hosed Americans? That would be the left wing, dear friends. It’s all on video that you refuse to watch. The US govt broke the law and the left thought it swell, until things unravelled. There were all kinds of stories about this before hand, it’s not hind sight. The housing bubble was pushed by the left, including ACORN and all of the greedy idiots of America that bought homes they knew they could not afford. Once the gravy train left the station, all kinds were on board. But who scheduled the train and fired it up? I read the stories about lawyers and custodians alike all buying homes they admitted they were gambling on. Well, they lost, but who pays? They should have let it collapse and it would have rebounded in just a few months. Instead, the govt tried to “fix” the problem and what a great job they did. Now the whole market has tanked and everyone has seen their home value sink for years (and years to come). When will we see thousands of fools, idiots and greedy morons going to jail for fraud and deceit? Folks at work say they see nothing wrong with walking away from their homes because they are under water. The fact that they are breaking their word and contract means nothing to them. Yet they point at Wall St as evil. Greed and evil are every where. It’s in the govt, the schools, the Union Halls and the home. I have to have my savings destroyed to bail them all out. Bush did 20% of the damage and the left did 80%. I’m pissed at both of them, but I keep things in perspective. It was the left that was criminal, not Bush. Iceland can’t pay it’s bills because they spent more than they earned and it’s no one’s fault but themselves. They are deadbeats. They don’t produce as much useful stuff as they should and they are paying for it. Don’t blame the banks for extending them credit. Think about it. What the heck does Iceland produce that the rest of the world needs? Nothing. And how much stuff does Iceland use that they need from the world and can’t make themselves? A lot. It’s that simple.

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