Another Failed Department of Energy Enterprise -- Only $50 Million, Fortunately

Remember that list of 38 solar companies that went bankrupt or were likely to go bankrupt? All financed by the US Department of Energy. I guess I sort of thought the DOE could only lose money on solar companies. Apparently not.

It's a convoluted story with lots of capital letters and acronyms, and I didn't spend much time on it, but apparently DOE provided a $50 million loan to some natural gas minivan company to build a wheelchair-accommodating minivan. The company went broke. Some other company bought the company that went bankrupt, paying DOE $3 million for the $50 million asset.

I'm sure I got it wrong, but you can read it at the link. Bottom line: US taxpayers got $3 million back for a $50 million loan.

And they say Bank of America took advantage of home buyers with their loans. I can't make this stuff up.