Run On "Banks?" Great Couple Of Weeks For EV Stories -- June 13, 2022

First things first:

• I guess the Texas grid held after hitting record demand;
• apparently things are in better shape than expected: works that way as long as the sun shines and the wind blows, which means Texas will be fine this summer
• that doesn't mean we won't have warnings, alerts, brownout and rolling blackouts but won't amount to much
• bigger story will be watching ISO-NY and ISO-NE 
• that "winter thing" a couple of years ago: not only a "one-off" but it wasn't due to excessive demand
• ERCOT today: 
• capacity projected to be 86K MW
• demand projected to max out at 76K MW
  

Nicest thing about 104°F over the weekend?

• Monday morning, today, feels almost cool
• poolside with strong breeze; quite cool
• this a.m. -- still in bed -- I thought the a/c had come on -- it felt so cool -- but I don't use a/c when my wife is not home
  

The Sports Page:

• NASCAR yesterday: what little I saw, not interested
• PGA: stellar tournament this past weekend and now the US Open this week -- Brookline (Boston), MA
• Rory! Phil, who?
• NBA: fifth game tonight; now it gets serious; series tied; Stephen Curry amazing

Cryptocurrency:

• two cryptocurrencies stop withdrawals: Binance and Celsius;
• is this like a "run on the banks"?

Bear market. Everything is on sale.

EVs:

• ELMS: seeks bankruptcy protection
• happening faster than expected, link here;

Ovintiv: this is really, really cool

• a couple of days ago I brought this up, link here;
• today, we have a bit more background, link here.

**************************
Banner Week For Coal-Powered EVs

These made my week (actually, over the past two weeks, or so):

• GM Chevy Volt runs on coal.
• ELMS seeks bankruptcy protection.
• California grid.
• Coal: India and China coal production surging by 700 million tons per year; greater than all US coal output; link here.

************************
Solyndranization Of America

See Solyndra tag for background. See the list.
SPACs: just another name for laundering.

***********************
BNPL

Let's see, one pays for a large luxury item -- let's say, an Apple computer -- $2,500 -- on a major credit card, with "promise to self" to pay off in one month

• promise broken
• first month balance not paid in full: 24% APR interest rate
• difficulty paying it off; miss the deadline; vacationing, forgot about due date? Add "late fee" to that 24% APR interest
• Big Bank: making huge amount of money

Now, imagine, make that same large luxury item purchase and retailer says, "four easy installments" with no late fees and no interest as long as fully paid on time -- over "four easy installments"

• now we get story after story in the press telling us BNPL is "bad"
• ever wonder who plants those stories?
• next big thing: BNPL
• but interestingly, we've had BNPL forever -- only difference, AAPL is now getting into this big time

Firestone: has had BNPL for as long as I can remember. An incredible marketing idea. Except for annual inspections and simply oil changes, my hunch is that the average automobile "tune up" or "servicing" runs $600 for the average American, being able to pay for that very, very necessary charge over six months at no interest is a godsend for many. I wonder how many folks take advantage of this?

************************
Anti-Fracking

Tea leaves suggest OPEC knew long ago that their spare capacity was a myth.

• their biggest fear: US shale would fill the gap
• all of a sudden, OPEC loses not only money, but power
• then, story after story about the dangers of fracking
• ever wonder who planted those stories?

************************
From Twitter

Things don't just happen.

They happen by design. 

*************************
But ...

... having said all that, my favorite story all weekend was AP's fact checking confirmed that EVs placed a strain on California's power grid more than a year ago ... and it was not covered by mainstream media until someone noted it on twitter.

The AP trying to spin that story was more hilarious than the actual story itself.

Huge Obama-Backed "Green" Project Goes Bust -- Add One More To The List -- July 31, 2020

Two of the best posts ever regarding the reality of "green" / renewable energy in the US were:

• January 12, 2017; which linked the original post;
• the original post of August 26, 2015

The posts contained the very long list of failed "green" / renewable energy projects which were backed by the Obama administration and paid for with our tax dollars. It was a huge waste of money in the minds of many, but I'm still convinced that was one of the best money-laundering schemes ever devised to move money from taxpayers to the president's political campaign. #BlackLiveMatter has taken a page from that playbook. But I digress.

At the two links above, one can see the list of failed "green" projects.

Add one of the largest to the list: Tonopah Solar Energy LLC. From Reuters:

The owner of a big Nevada solar-thermal power plant that received $737 million in loans from the U.S. Department of Energy filed for bankruptcy on Thursday, according to a court filing, potentially leaving U.S. taxpayers with a whopping bill.

The project’s failure is a blow to the DOE renewable energy loan program, which had already been criticized by Republicans as a waste of money after it backed failed solar panel maker Solyndra during the Obama administration.

Tonopah Solar Energy LLC still owes $425 million on its DOE loan, but reached a settlement under which the department will recover at least $200 million, it said in court documents filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware.

The deal is subject to court approval.

In a statement, DOE spokeswoman Shaylyn Hynes said the settlement decision “was made after years of exhausting options within our authority to get the project back on track.”

A senior Trump administration official said the settlement “secures taxpayer money that was squandered by the previous administrations’ failed energy pet projects.” 

I don't recall ever seeing a Reuters article describing an Obama failed project resulting in a whopping bill for US taxpayers.

That alone tells me how big a deal this was.

Tonopah is owned by SolarReserve, the startup that developed the plant, Cobra Energy Investments LLC, a division of Spanish infrastructure company ACS, and Banco Santander SA, according to court papers.

Tonopah’s 110-megawatt plant in the Nevada desert was billed as the first to be able to store solar energy. But its technology, which uses more than 10,000 mirrors to focus the sun’s heat on a tower to create steam, was both unreliable and expensive.

Soon after it began operating in 2015, the facility suffered a string of leaks in its hot salt tank, a key component of its energy storage system. It has not operated since April of 2019. 

I recall posting many links to many articles about this failed project. 

I had forgotten the Spanish connection.

One wonders if the land will be reclaimed and returned to its natural state, or if the bankruptcy deal will allow the owner to try to get the project back on track.

I've updated the previous posts to include Tonopah / SolarReserve.

Just think, if the country is crazy enough to put the Obama administration back in power this November, 2020, we can re-live these debacles all over again.

This is the new list (I assume there are further updates or companies I missed):

• Tonopah Solar Energy LLC / Solar Reserve ($737 million) -- added July 30, 2020; 
• Evergreen Solar ( Lost $25 million)
• SpectraWatt ( Lost $500,000)
• Solyndra ( Lost $535 million)
• Beacon Power ( Lost $43 million)
• Nevada Geothermal ( Lost $98.5 million)
• SunPower ( Lost $1.2 billion)
• First Solar ( Lost $1.46 billion)
• Babcock and Brown ( Lost $178 million)
• EnerDel’s subsidiary Ener1 ( Lost $118.5 million)
• Amonix ( Lost $5.9 million)
• Fisker Automotive ( Lost $529 million)
• Abound Solar ( Lost $400 million)
• A123 Systems ( Lost $279 million)
• Willard and Kelsey Solar Group ( Lost $700,981)
• Johnson Controls ( Lost $299 million)
• Brightsource ( Lost $1.6 billion)
• ECOtality ( Lost $126.2 million)
• Raser Technologies ( Lost $33 million)
• Energy Conversion Devices ( Lost $13.3 million)
• Mountain Plaza, Inc. ( Lost $2 million)
• Olsen’s Crop Service and Olsen’s Mills Acquisition Company ( Lost $10 million)
• Range Fuels ( Lost $80 million)
• Thompson River Power ( Lost $6.5 million)
• Stirling Energy Systems ( Lost $7 million)
• Azure Dynamics ( Lost $5.4 million)
• GreenVolts ( Lost $500,000)
• Vestas ( Lost $50 million)
• LG Chem’s subsidiary Compact Power ( Lost $151 million)
• Nordic Windpower ( Lost $16 million)
• Navistar ( Lost $39 million)
• Satcon ( Lost $3 million)
• Konarka Technologies Inc. ( Lost $20 million)
• Mascoma Corp. ( Lost $100 million)

One wonders if we should add the Brown Bullet Train to the list? In terms of dollars lost, I think the BBT would be head and shoulders above the rest.

For other posts on this solar energy project, click on "Solyndra" or use the search engine to search for "Tonopah."

Updating: Solyndra Slush Fund List; And The Obama Definition Of "Permanent" -- February 19, 2020

********************************

Flashback: Solyndra

Solyndra slush fund list.

See this link.

Earlier:

February 6, 2020: Crescent Dunes, $737-million-backed by the federal government; solar company in Nevada declares bankruptcy. Link here. Solyndra: $535 million. Crescent Dunes lost its only customer; suffered a catastrophic technology failure -- can't even produce any electricity.

And even earlier, from the Las Vegas Review Journal (I don't expect this to come up during tonight's debate):

Do readers remember the Crescent Dunes solar power plant in Tonopah? The project commenced some 10 years ago and was financed in part with a $737 million federal loan guarantee.

Nevada Energy fully supported the project, promising to buy power at a rate almost six times as high as the market at the time. At the same time, the company was destroying Nevada’s residential solar businesses by pushing through a measure to reduce the “buyback” of energy generated by households to less than one-sixth of the going rate.

How is the Crescent Dunes doing? It ceased operations in April. The three-quarters of a billion dollars of federal guaranteed loans have been eaten by us taxpayers, and the Department of Energy is trying to decide what to do with this albatross.

The "boondoggle" served its purpose: slush fund for funneling money (political donations from CEO, board members) to political parties and candidates -- don't cry for me, Argentina). 

For more on "Tonopah," click here.

How many remember that genius, Steven Chu?

From the blog, September 28, 2011:

Link here.

Energy Secretary Steven Chu said the department has completed a $737 million loan guarantee to Tonopah Solar Energy for a 110 megawatt solar tower on federal land near Tonopah, Nev., and a $337 million guarantee for Mesquite Solar 1 to develop a 150 megawatt solar plant near Phoenix.

The two projects will create about 52 permanent jobs, Chu said.

I can't make this stuff up: more than $1 billion in guaranteed loans for 52 permanent jobs.

Part of the $800 billion stimulus program that President Obama now says is responsible for the Trump economy.

$737 million loan guarantee. 52 permanent jobs. Permanent if "permanent" is defined as less than a decade.

***************************************

On Social Media Today

What Is Kraken Doing With Some Old Kaiser-Francis Wells In The Sanish? -- February 6, 2020

A few wells in the Sanish previously operated by Kaiser-Francis, now operated by Kraken, are updated. These are incredibly awful wells, especially considering that they are in the Sanish oil field. Most, if not almost all, of the wells have been taken off-line.

I don't see any active drilling or active fracking in the area. One wonders if Kraken has taken these wells off line while they figure out what to do next.

********************************

Flashback: Solyndra

Solyndra slush fund list.

See this link.

Now this:

February 6, 2020: Crescent Dunes, $737-million-backed by the federal government; solar company in Nevada declares bankruptcy. Link here. Solyndra: $535 million. Crescent Dunes lost its only customer; suffered a catastrophic technology failure -- can't even produce any electricity. 

Flashback: Solyndra -- March 21, 2019, T+78, Part 1

Solyndra.

Ten years ago today, President Barack Obama gave the Solyndra solar panel company $535 million of Energy Department loan guarantees as part of his economic stimulus program, Sandra Smith reported on "America's Newsroom."

"The true engines of economic growth will always be companies like Solyndra," Obama said of the California company at the time.

Then-Energy Secretary Steven Chu also heralded the taxpayer funding for easy-to-install solar panels.

Looking back on the failed investment, Smith played video clips of Solyndra's early days, with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-Calif.) breaking ground on part of the company's property.

Smith said that just days after the ensuing 2010 midterms, Solyndra filed for bankruptcy and finally went under in 2011, taking with it the half-billion taxpayer dollars and hundreds of jobs.

Two words: money laundering.

***************************************

Overheard At Starbucks This Morning

Disclaimer: this is not an investment site. Do not make any investment, financial, job, travel, or relationship decisions based on what you read here or what you think you may have read here.

Art Berman: besides not understanding tight oil, Art apparently doesn't understand free market capitalism; hasn't read the latest news on Exxon-$15-Permian; and may be unaware of the "illegality" of cartels in the US. Just saying.

First things first, a mash-up:

Pretty Woman, Elvis Presley, Roy Orbison
The market: best market ever for investors -- especially those in energy -- what's not to like? Let's count the reasons --

• the Fed is spooked; Jerome Powell throws in the towel on rate increases [later, Jim Cramer agrees; says Jay Powell made a "rookie mistake." LOL.
• Trump is in control: the only thing holding back the market, now that the Fed has quit raising rates (maybe one more) are the tariffs on Chinese trade -- and Trump alone will decide when
• the market is clearly climbing the wall of worry
• huge upgrade for AAPL today; shares jump almost $4.00; movers and shakers took advantage of recent AAPL sale, I'm sure
• jobs: unemployment claims fall more than expected; first time unemployment claims drop 9,000; link here. 

Intelligent animals: I see there's another article today about how smart animals are, an article on an anteater using a tool or something .. [later, right on cue, bears communicate like humans ... what a bunch of crap ....National Geographic also had a submerged Statue of Liberty due to rising oceans/global warming ---]....


Apparently a whole cottage industry ...

Another One Bites The Dust -- March 11, 2017

Over the last couple of days, there have been reports of "global-warming-related" entities shutting down or going bankrupt. First, the was the Australian Climate Institute, and then there was the Hawaiian algae-producing-jet-fuel refiner.

These, of course, were preceded over the past several years by the "Solyndra 38" which has certainly grown to 45+, I'm sure.

To the list of Solyndra projects we can now add yet another taxpayer-funded Obama green-energy project: Aquion Energy. Data points:

• $5.2 million stimulus-tied grant from the Obama administration
• battery research
• Pennsylvania
• lessons learned in making batteries:
• a complex endeavor
• time-consuming
• very capital intensive

... none of which stopped the NASA "man-on-the-moon" program, the Lewis and Clark expedition, George Patton, Tesla, or DAPL.

To its credit, and something the CEO and directors can put on their resume when looking for a new job, the company was named "the North American Company of The Year" just prior to filing for bankruptcy.

I cannot make this stuff up.

Maybe Donald Trump should invited the company's CEO and its directors to the White House to honor them.

Largest Bankruptcy In Spain's History: Solar Energy Company In Which Obama Administration Invested Billions; Think Solyndra -- April 16, 2016

Abengoa has been previously linked at these posts:

• a boondoggle in Arizona: Abengoa, June 14, 2015
• yieldcos: the next big thing, May 9, 2015
• biofuels will bankrupt Abengoa, April 14, 2014

The Solyndra list of 39 solar scams supported by Sasha's father.

WND is now reporting that Abengoa, a solar-energy company in which the Obama administration "invested" billions has failed.

The collapse of a Spanish-based multinational renewable energies company could cause election-year embarrassment not only to President Obama, Hillary Clinton, the Clinton Foundation and the Democratic Party, but also to Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz and his wife Heidi, through their ties to Goldman Sachs. [I doubt anyone will be "embarrassed."]

Announced Tuesday, Seville-headquartered renewables multinational firm Abengoa plans to sell off four solar photovoltaic power plants in Spain for a collective value of $65.13 million, $57.26 million and a net cash flow of $13.9 million, helping the company meet its debt-restructuring targets set out in its feasibility plan.

The asset sale announced Tuesday comes after the company sold in February its 20 percent share in the 100MV Shams-1 concentrated solar power plant in the United Arab Emirates to the Abu Dhabi-based renewable energy company Masdar.

The Abengoa selloff, which has included selling the company’s office headquarters in Madrid, is part of a non-strategic divestment plan announced after the company went into bankruptcy in November. The move is designed to reap approximately $112 million in operating cash to stay in business until December.

The bankruptcy, the largest in Spain’s history, was triggered after Gonvarri, an arm of Spain’s industrial group Gestamp, decided in November 2015 against a plan to invest $371 million into the company.

Last November, after the Abengoa bankruptcy was announced, the company’s bonds were “virtually worthless,” as its share price plummeted 54 percent in a single day.

Abengoa was a renewable energy company that scripted perfectly the Obama administration’s shift from carbon-based fuel, providing a European counterpart to the U.S.-based Solyndra.

Solyndra was earmarked for funding in the Obama “economic recovery” stimulus efforts that began in 2008 at the end of the George W. Bush administration after the bank failures and economic downturn occasioned by the collapse of the subprime mortgage market.

Last November, Abengoa had received at least $2.7 billion in federal loan guarantees since 2010 to build several large-scale solar power projects in the United States. There was no certainty any of the government loans would be paid back amid a collapse that dwarfed the $530 million loss to the U.S. taxpayer with the collapse of Solyndra in 2011.

Flashbacks/from earlier posts:

It was about two years ago when Bloomberg had an article suggesting that Europe was turning back to coal instead of natural gas.

Bloomberg is reporting: Europe is turning to coal -- instead of natural gas --

Natural gas-fired power plants accounting for almost 30 percent of Europe’s capacity are at risk of shutting or being mothballed as utilities opt to burn cheaper coal, according to the International Center for Natural Gas Information.

At that same post, it was noted that Spain was turning away from solar energy:

When I think of Iberdola, I think of Spanish renewable energy. When you go to the wiki link on Iberdola, you will see why. I'm not going to go through all the numbers, but the general gist is that this is a company focused on renewable energy.

Oh, before we get started, a reminder: the unemployment rate in Spain is 26%. CNBC calls a rate of 26% "massive." I would tend to agree.

Okay, back to Iberdola.

For a company focused on green energy, it's surprising to see that it just signed with Cheniere for a 20-year supply of LNG for its customer base in the UK and Spain. [It was interesting to note that this was not only for Spain, but also for the UK. Remember, it is expected that the UK will run out of its own natural gas within three years.] FuelFix is reporting:

A Cheniere Energy subsidiary has agreed to a 20-year deal worth $5.6 billion to supply liquefied natural gas to Spanish power and generation company Iberdola. 

ObamaCare Co-Op Failure(s) Compared To Solyndra -- August 28, 2015

It's funny how things turn out. This morning I posted a story I happened to come across in The Boston Globe about the huge health care premium increases scheduled for Massachusetts in 2016, after huge increases already in 2014 and 2015.  I didn't know if I really wanted to post it / link it but in the end decided to do so. Now, I get this link from Don: another ObamaCare co-op "bites the dust," this one in Harry Reid's backyard. Investors.com is reporting:

On Wednesday, the Nevada Health Co-Op announced that it will go out of business at the end of the year. This is the third out of the 23 ObamaCare-created nonprofit health plans to fail, but it isn't likely to be the last.

After getting $69.5 million in government-sponsored startup loans, Nevada's co-op saw enrollment come in far lower than expected, and claims costs far higher, resulting in a $15 million loss last year.

The co-op was seeing the same dismal results this year, making it impossible to provide "quality care at reasonable rates."

Democrats who designed ObamaCare created these nonprofit co-ops in the belief that they could provide price competition in ObamaCare exchanges. To get them off the ground, the federal government pumped more than $2.5 billion in startup loans and $355 million in solvency loans when things started to turn sour last year.

More:

Before calling it quits, Nevada's co-op was asking for hikes as high as 27.53%.
A recent audit found that enrollment in most of the state co-ops was significantly below expectations, and costs were far higher. All but one of the 23 co-ops lost money in 2014 — more than half saw losses that were higher than Nevada's.

Earlier this year, CoOpportunity — which served members in Iowa and Nebraska — ceased operations, and the Louisiana Health Cooperative announced it would close its doors at the end of the year. Tennessee's coop had to freeze enrollment this year amid mounting losses.

The three failed co-ops received a total of $310 million in federal startup and solvency loans. Overall, $2.9 billion in federal loans is at risk.

For perspective, Solyndra — the solar panel company that famously failed early in the Obama administration — cost taxpayers $500 million.

Anyone who doesn't think the current president will go down in history as the worst US president since WWII simply isn't paying attention. 

Solyndra Was Just One Of (At Least) 36 -- August 26, 2015

Updates

February 6, 2020: Crescent Dunes, $737-million-backed by the federal government; solar company in Nevada declares bankruptcy. Link here. Solyndra: $535 million. Crescent Dunes lost its only customer; suffered a catastrophic technology failure -- can't even produce any electricity. Also here.

March 11, 2017: add Acquion. 

January 12, 2017: in the comments section at this post, a reader provided an updated list:

• Tonopah Solar Energy LLC / Solar Reserve ($737 million) -- added July 30, 2020; 
• Evergreen Solar ( Lost $25 million)
• SpectraWatt ( Lost $500,000)
• Solyndra ( Lost $535 million)
• Beacon Power ( Lost $43 million)
• Nevada Geothermal ( Lost $98.5 million)
• SunPower ( Lost $1.2 billion)
• First Solar ( Lost $1.46 billion)
• Babcock and Brown ( Lost $178 million)
• EnerDel’s subsidiary Ener1 ( Lost $118.5 million)
• Amonix ( Lost $5.9 million)
• Fisker Automotive ( Lost $529 million)
• Abound Solar ( Lost $400 million)
• A123 Systems ( Lost $279 million)
• Willard and Kelsey Solar Group ( Lost $700,981)
• Johnson Controls ( Lost $299 million)
• Brightsource ( Lost $1.6 billion)
• ECOtality ( Lost $126.2 million)
• Raser Technologies ( Lost $33 million)
• Energy Conversion Devices ( Lost $13.3 million)
• Mountain Plaza, Inc. ( Lost $2 million)
• Olsen’s Crop Service and Olsen’s Mills Acquisition Company ( Lost $10 million)
• Range Fuels ( Lost $80 million)
• Thompson River Power ( Lost $6.5 million)
• Stirling Energy Systems ( Lost $7 million)
• Azure Dynamics ( Lost $5.4 million)
• GreenVolts ( Lost $500,000)
• Vestas ( Lost $50 million)
• LG Chem’s subsidiary Compact Power ( Lost $151 million)
• Nordic Windpower ( Lost $16 million)
• Navistar ( Lost $39 million)
• Satcon ( Lost $3 million)
• Konarka Technologies Inc. ( Lost $20 million)
• Mascoma Corp. ( Lost $100 million) 

Original Post

 

It is amazing that out of the dozens of companies that were in the news from the very beginning, "we" picked up on Solyndra immediately. 

The blog is full of Solyndra stories right from the start (see tag). It turns out "we" were correct all along.

Taxpayer money to Solyndra; CEO and directors donate to DNC; Solyndra goes by the wayside after the election. At the same time Lois and the IRS targets Tea Party groups ensuring they are not given tax-free status and the rest is history as they say.

The Obama Administration admits Solyndra was a "scam." Not in so many words, but that's the nut. The actual words are here in the full report, a PDF file.

The interesting thing is that Solyndra was not the only scam. I doubt many folks remember this post and the list of 36 companies that received federal support from taxpayers have either gone bankrupt or are laying off workers and are heading for bankruptcy. This list includes only those companies that received federal money from the Obama Administration’s Department of Energy.

The amount of money indicated does not reflect how much was actually received or spent but how much was offered. The amount also does not include other state, local, and federal tax credits and subsidies, which push the amount of money these companies have received from taxpayers even higher.

The complete list of faltering or bankrupt green-energy companies:

1. Evergreen Solar ($24 million)*
2. SpectraWatt ($500,000)*
3. Solyndra ($535 million)*
4. Beacon Power ($69 million)* -- see "update/correction" below
5. AES’s subsidiary Eastern Energy ($17.1 million) -- see "update/correction" below
6. Nevada Geothermal ($98.5 million)
7. SunPower ($1.5 billion)
8. First Solar ($1.46 billion)
9. Babcock and Brown ($178 million)
10. EnerDel’s subsidiary Ener1 ($118.5 million)*
11. Amonix ($5.9 million)
12. National Renewable Energy Lab ($200 million)
13. Fisker Automotive ($528 million)
14. Abound Solar ($374 million)*
15. A123 Systems ($279 million)*
16. Willard and Kelsey Solar Group ($6 million) -- see "update/correction" below
17. Johnson Controls ($299 million)
18. Schneider Electric ($86 million) -- see "update/correction" below
19. Brightsource ($1.6 billion)
20. ECOtality ($126.2 million)
21. Raser Technologies ($33 million)*
22. Energy Conversion Devices ($13.3 million)*
23. Mountain Plaza, Inc. ($2 million)*
24. Olsen’s Crop Service and Olsen’s Mills Acquisition Company ($10 million)*
25. Range Fuels ($80 million)*
26. Thompson River Power ($6.4 million)*
27. Stirling Energy Systems ($7 million)*
28. LSP Energy ($2.1 billion)* -- see "update/correction" below
29. UniSolar ($100 million)* -- see "update/correction" below
30. Azure Dynamics ($120 million)* -- see "update/correction" below
31. GreenVolts ($500,000)
32. Vestas ($50 million)
33. LG Chem’s subsidiary Compact Power ($150 million) -- see "correction" below
34. Nordic Windpower ($16 million)*
35. Navistar ($10 million)
36. Satcon ($3 million)*
37. Nissan Leaf battery facility, Smyrna, TN (see November 15, 2012, update above) 
38. Twin Creeks Technologies, Senatobia, MS ($26  million)* (see November 30, 2012, update above) 
39. Abengoa, Madrid, Spain; added April 16, 2016; bankrupt; largest bankruptcy in Spain's history;  
40. Tonopah Solar Energy LLC / Solar Reserve ($737 million) -- added July 30, 2020; 

* Indicates filed for bankruptcy.

Note: the list came from another source; not all links were fact-checked. Much has been lost since the list was originally published. I can no longer vouch for the accuracy of the list, but it gets the point across to anyone paying attention. If this is important to you, go to the original source, at the post linked above.

Solyndra Back In The News -- April 28, 2015

Fox News is reporting:

It’s official, the Energy Department’s green energy loan program is actually expected to lose money despite media reports that such loans would net the government a profit.

The Government Accountability Office says the DOE’s oft-touted $28 billion loan program will cost taxpayers $2.21 billion over the lifetime of the loans. Not only that, the costs to taxpayers for green loans has risen about $500 million as “the result of loan guarantee defaults” from companies like Solyndra and Abound Solar.

The “credit subsidy cost of the loans and loan guarantees in its portfolio” is expected “to be $2.21 billion, including $807 million for loans that have defaulted,” GAO reports. “The fees DOE has collected have not been sufficient to cover all of its administrative expenses for the program” because the “fees on the current loan guarantees were too low to cover ongoing monitoring costs.”

This stands in sharp contrast to media reports from last year suggesting the DOE’s green loan program would net taxpayers $5 billion. Last year, the Washington Post’s Wonkblog ran with the headline, “Remember Solyndra? Those loans are making money.”

The liberal news watchdog Media Matters exclaimed that “Solyndra Scandal-Mongering Hasn’t Stopped The Energy Dept’s Loan Program From Turning A Profit”

Such news stories came after a November 2014 DOE progress report saying it was on track to earn more than $5 billion in total interest payments. The DOE said it had earned $810 million in interest payments — outweighing the $780 million in estimated losses the loan program was expected to incur.

But for Obama, Solyndra accomplished what it was set up to do.

Modern Political Money Laundering -- December 29, 2014

An Opinion Piece

I am not alleging any wrong-doing or any illegal activity

Everybody does it 

This is the way I imagine modern political money laundering is accomplished:

1. People who have the correct credentials, such as a Ph.D. from Yale, or an MBA from Harvard School of Business, AND the golden gift of gab, AND generally have no skeletons in their closet (e.g., pedophile) are given a government grant for a politically correct start-up, such as a battery manufacturing plant or a wind farm or a solar farm or a global warming think tank.

Tower of Song, Leonard Cohen
2. The salaries for the start-up are a) generous, b) guaranteed; c) provided to the CEO and directors; and, d) sourced by the federal government.

3. The start-up is run like any other business entity, but a) IRS audits are not in the cards; and, b) the CEO and directors are expected to contribute heavily to the political party that made it all possible. This is community organizing at its best.

4. The best-known example was Solyndra. Solyndra is the poster child for political money laundering through start-up battery companies. See this post and/or the Solyndra tags at the bottom of the blog.

5. It appears we now have a poster child for solar farms: Ivanpah. See these links:

• Ivanpah, the tortoises -- October 10, 2010
• Ivanpah -- February 13, 2014
• Ivanpah -- February 14, 2014 
• Ivanpah -- October 10, 2014
• Ivanpah -- November 11, 2014
• Ivanpah -- November 17, 2014
• Ivanpah -- November 24, 2014
• Ivanpah -- December 29, 2014
• Ivanpah -- October 19, 2015
• Ivanpah -- March 19, 2016 
• Ivanpah -- forbearance agreements are confidential -- March 30, 2016 
• Ivanpah -- feels the burn -- May 22, 2016 
• Ivanpah -- CFC fries 6,000 birds yearly -- September 2, 2016

And so it goes. 

Connecting Some Dots On A Slow Saturday Morning; A123 Becomes B456 -- Owned By The Chinese

Back on November 17, 2013, I wrote a long "whining" post on the most recent edition of Bloomberg Businessweek.

The opportunity "forced" me to actually look at the "special issue" much more closely than I otherwise might have looked. The blog has served me very, very well .... 

Here are some dots to connect, to think about.

From the Bloomberg Businessweek special edition, the lead-off story, with what to watch for in 2014. The two-page "headline" spread, which I complained about, may have been more helpful than I realized. It included five head shots of the movers and shakers for 2014. I recognized all but one. The one I did not recognize was of Chinese Premier Li. The caption was simply "LI." I thought it was the page number in Roman numbers, page 51.

Then this article linked over at Drudge: taxpayers lose $139 million on Fisker.  

Happy Thanksgiving from the Obama administration. The Energy Department has sold off its $192 million loan guarantee to Fisker Automotive to Chinese billionaire Richard Li for $25 million — the biggest taxpayer loss on a green loan since the failure of Solyndra.

The Energy Department will announce the "selling of the promissory note” to Hybrid Tech, which is owned by Chinese billionaire Richard Li, according to sources familiar with the sale. The DOE sold the loan to Li for $25 million after lending the financially troubled green automaker a total of $192 million since 2009.

But in this case, the dots probably don't connect. I am not aware that Chinese Premier Li and Mr Richard are related.

Except for the fact that they are Chinese. 

So, although the dots don't connect as well as I would like, the exercise revealed there are some new movers and shakers to watch going into 2014.

According to an undated post: 

Hybrid Tech Holdings is new investor group that was formed on October 29 in Delaware. There's no available info on the company at the time of writing and it is unknown whether or not Hybrid Tech plans to restart Fisker Karma production.

The Chinese are getting deep into American battery technology. From the Daily Caller article linked above:

It was reported last month that Li and the Obama administration were ironing out the details of the Fisker loan sale after the Energy Department had completed its auction. Li’s purchase of the government’s loan represents the second acquisition of an Obama-backed green energy company by Chinese investors. Earlier this year, the Chinese auto parts conglomerate Wanxiang Group bought the electric car battery maker A123 Systems, renaming the company B456.

Simply For The Archives: Where Is Fisker?

Yahoo/Reuters is reporting:

The U.S. Department of Energy will auction next month a green technology loan made to Fisker Automotive, a move that may allow the struggling company to mount a comeback under a new owner.

Fisker, which has not built a vehicle in more than a year, now owes $168 million to the DOE. The auction is scheduled for October 11 with bids due on October 7, according to a notice posted on Tuesday on govsales.gov, which tracks government asset sales.

The auction comes about a month after the DOE put its $50 million green-energy loan to the Vehicle Production Group LLC on the block. The loan was later sold for $3 million.

"After exhausting any realistic possibility for a sale that might have protected our entire investment, the department announced today that we are auctioning the remainder of Fisker's loan obligation, offering the best possible recovery for the taxpayer," said Peter Davidson, executive director of the DOE's loan program office, in a blog post.

Another great investment paid for by the US taxpayer.  See also the "list of 38."

Another One Bites The Dust

Yahoo/AP is reporting:

Ecotality, which makes charging systems for electric vehicles, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Ecotality Inc. said it made the filing Monday in Arizona. The company had said in August that it might be forced into a sale or bankruptcy filing after disappointing sales and a suspension of payments from the federal government. It has also paid $855,000 in back wages and damages to resolve an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor into allegations that the company broke labor laws.

The San Francisco company makes charging and power-storage systems for electric vehicles under the Blink and Minit Charger brands, including charging stations for the Nissan Leaf. It also does testing for government agencies, auto makers and utilities.

Ecotality has received more than $100 million in funding from the Department of Energy since 2009. The company has also received funding from the state of California and from Australia.

So, we will add this to the "list of 38." 

DOE Defends Its List Of 38

CNBC is reporting:

The Department of Energy's loan guarantee program for alternative energy companies has been hit by some high-profile failures. 

Yet the agency is sticking by its guns, even as the overall green sector comes under scrutiny, and critics insist the government should not play the role of green venture capitalists.

Last week, the DoE admitted a recipient of a $50 million green loan-Michigan-based Vehicle Production Group-would cost the government $42 million. VPG was forced to lay off hundreds in February, after paying back only $5 million of what the DoE lent it.
Since its creation in 2005, the $34 billion lending program has provided 33 companies with government financing for alternative energy projects. The program has had some high-profile successes. It's helped set up 13 solar energy firms that are actively selling power into the grid.

But failed start-ups -namely Solyndra, Fisker Automotive and First Solar, which all received funds from the green lending program-have left taxpayers in the red. 

For the "list of 38" click here. 

The interesting thing is that CNBC is missing the bigger story here. Incumbent party sends funds to start-ups -- > CEOs donate money to incumbent party. There's a term for this.

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.

Another Solar Company Shuts Its Doors; Received Government Tax Credits

CNSNews is reporting:

A Pittsburgh, Pa. solar energy company has shut its doors four years after receiving nearly $10.2 million in tax credits from the Obama Administration as part of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act.

Flabeg Solar U.S. Corp., a $30 million solar plant located near the Pittsburgh International Airport, opened its doors in 2009 and was said to provide 300 jobs. Now, just four years later, the plant has shut down and laid off more than 60 workers. In addition to this, 10 of its former employees have petitioned a federal judge for severance pay after they lost their jobs last month, according to PA Independent.

Robert Lampl, the attorney for Flabeg, said the company would probably seek Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection from the workers who are suing over their severance pay.
In addition to the $10 million received in stimulus funds, the state and Allegheny County added an additional $9 million in job creation grants, loans, and other financial aid to help launch the plant, bringing the total to $20 million in assistance to the company.

Add one more to the long list of failed solar companies provided taxpayer money. Money from failed solar companies would have paid for White House tours .... perhaps, indefinitely.

Dribs and Drabs From the SOTU; Add Another Solar Company To The List Of Those Going Bankrupt

Updates

September 7, 2013: add a natural gas minivan company to the list.

August 15, 2013: add VPG to the list. 

April 26, 2013: add SoloPower to the group of failed solar panel companies to the list below; funded by state of Oregon; not by US taxpayers

April 8, 2013: Flabeg Solar U.S. Corp., a $30 million solar plant located near the Pittsburgh International Airport has shut its doors four years after receiving nearly $10.2 million in tax credits from the Obama Administration as part of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act. For more, click here.

Original Post

I guess the administration is looking to set up another slush fund. This slush fund would take money from the oil and gas industry and place it into a lock box / white box in which research on gas-free vehicles would take place. Sort of like the DOE / Solyndra debacle, I suppose.

This is sort of what I imagine the slush fund to look like three years after inception (I've not checked all the links; these are from an old post and some of the links may have broken):

The complete list of faltering or bankrupt green-energy companies:

1. Evergreen Solar ($24 million)*
2. SpectraWatt ($500,000)*
3. Solyndra ($535 million)*
4. Beacon Power ($69 million)* -- see "update/correction" below
5. AES’s subsidiary Eastern Energy ($17.1 million) -- see "update/correction" below
6. Nevada Geothermal ($98.5 million)
7. SunPower ($1.5 billion)
8. First Solar ($1.46 billion)
9. Babcock and Brown ($178 million)
10. EnerDel’s subsidiary Ener1 ($118.5 million)*
11. Amonix ($5.9 million)
12. National Renewable Energy Lab ($200 million)
13. Fisker Automotive ($528 million)
14. Abound Solar ($374 million)*
15. A123 Systems ($279 million)*
16. Willard and Kelsey Solar Group ($6 million) -- see "update/correction" below
17. Johnson Controls ($299 million)
18. Schneider Electric ($86 million) -- see "update/correction" below
19. Brightsource ($1.6 billion)
20. ECOtality ($126.2 million)
21. Raser Technologies ($33 million)*
22. Energy Conversion Devices ($13.3 million)*
23. Mountain Plaza, Inc. ($2 million)*
24. Olsen’s Crop Service and Olsen’s Mills Acquisition Company ($10 million)*
25. Range Fuels ($80 million)*
26. Thompson River Power ($6.4 million)*
27. Stirling Energy Systems ($7 million)*
28. LSP Energy ($2.1 billion)* -- see "update/correction" below
29. UniSolar ($100 million)* -- see "update/correction" below
30. Azure Dynamics ($120 million)* -- see "update/correction" below
31. GreenVolts ($500,000)
32. Vestas ($50 million)
33. LG Chem’s subsidiary Compact Power ($150 million) -- see "correction" below
34. Nordic Windpower ($16 million)*
35. Navistar ($10 million)
36. Satcon ($3 million)*
37. Nissan Leaf battery facility, Smyrna, TN (see November 15, 2012, update above) 
38. Twin Creeks Technologies, Senatobia, MS ($26  million)* (see November 30, 2012, update above)

* Indicates filed for bankruptcy.

Of all the companies listed, this remains my favorite:

Twin Creeks Technologies. This is their $26 million website [update: surprisingly, this link is still up].  I assume this link will break soon -- the website is a single page, completely white except for a "sunburst" icon and "twincreeks technologies" all in lower case. That's the website. I can't make this stuff up. Here's the story:

Mississippi taxpayers may have only an empty Senatobia building and some solar panel equipment to show for nearly $26 million in loans provided to Twin Creeks Technologies.

The California-based solar technology firm is liquidating, and a company that bought Twin Creeks' assets does not intend to take over its agreement with Mississippi. The contract called for Twin Creeks to invest at least $132 million and create at least 500 jobs.

"Mississippi taxpayers may have only an empty Senatobia building and some solar panel equipment to show for nearly $26 million in loans" -- as you can see, this is not quite accurate. They also got a single page website with the logo.

If the administration is successful in establishing this slush fund, the two winners* would be: a) the unions; b) GM; and, c) Tesla. The losers: those buying gasoline. These costs would be passed on to the consumer. But Americans are content/satisfied, so this idea has potential. Oh, I forgot, the other winner would be the Chinese company making the flaming batteries for Boeing's 787 Dreamliner.

*I count "unions" and "GM" as one in this particular case.

******************************

Update: since the original list was posted, the source for this list, The Foundry, has noted some "corrections" which may affect the above list. None of the companies nor the government have contacted me to say the figures are incorrect. However, this from The Foundry:

Figures for four companies have been updated: Beacon Power received $43 million from the U.S. government, not $69 million as originally reported. Azure Dynamics received $5.4 million from the federal government, not $120 million as originally reported. Compact Power Inc. received $151 million as part of the stimulus, not $150 million as originally reported. Willard and Kelsey Solar Group received $700,981 in government funding, not $6 million as originally reported.

The following companies have been removed from the original list: AES’s subsidiary Eastern Energy, LSP Energy, Schneider Electric, and Uni-Solar did not receive government-backed loans, based on additional research. The National Renewable Energy Lab did received $200 million in stimulus funding, but it is a government laboratory.

Another DOE-Backed Solar Company Declares Bankruptcy

Updates

September 17, 2013: add Ecotality to the list.  And no one will be held accountable. The MBAs/CEO's will simply move on to the next gravy train.

September 15, 2013: another DOE failure; DOE defends its "list of 38."

April 4, 2013: I guess we can add Fisker to the list; will fire 75% of work force; CEO resigned abruptly last week.

December 9, 2012: Chinese company buys what is left of A123. 

November 30, 2012: to the list of "36" in the original post, we can now add another solar company that has gone bust: Twin Creeks Technologies. This is their $26 million website. I assume this link will break soon -- the website is a single page, completely white except for a "sunburst" icon and "twincreeks technologies" all in lower case. That's the website. I can't make this stuff up. Here's the story:

Mississippi taxpayers may have only an empty Senatobia building and some solar panel equipment to show for nearly $26 million in loans provided to Twin Creeks Technologies.

The California-based solar technology firm is liquidating, and a company that bought Twin Creeks' assets does not intend to take over its agreement with Mississippi. The contract called for Twin Creeks to invest at least $132 million and create at least 500 jobs.

November 15, 2012: to the list of "36" in the original post, add the Nissan Leaf plant near Smyrna, TN.

October 30, 2012: $300,000/A123 job with government stimulus (best figure; it could be worse; depends "how" one counts) --

Battery maker A123 Systems vowed thousands of new jobs when it received a nearly quarter-billion-dollar stimulus grant in late 2009, but federal job-tracking figures show only a few hundred positions were created before the company joined a growing list of federally backed energy businesses that ended in bankruptcy.

The latest quarterly report on file with a federal stimulus tracking database shows just seven positions created through the grant from April to June this year. Previous quarters’ job reports contained anywhere from a handful of positions created to more than 100 new jobs.

But even when the quarterly reports are combined, a total of 408 new positions were reported under the stimulus program since 2009, amounting to more than $300,000 spent for each new job reported.

October 26, 2012: huge criminal investigation story involving Abound Solar; in the list of 37 below; 

It was one of Barack Obama’s favorite green-energy companies. And green-energy companies, according to the president, are one of the best ways to facilitate economic growth.

Well, yesterday, The Denver Post detailed the criminal investigation of Abound Solar, a defunct solar-panel manufacturer in Colorado that was run on taxpayer “investments,” for securities fraud, consumer fraud and financial misrepresentation.

Abound shuttered its Colorado plant during the summer and filed for bankruptcy, leaving “125 workers without jobs and taxpayers holding the bag for up to $60 million in defaulted loans.” (Human Events senior reporter Audrey Hudson has already detailed the efforts by the House to investigate the company.)

October 26, 2012: green-jobs stimulus programs waste cash -- Labor Secretary's inspector  general --

President Obama’s green jobs training program, which was part of his stimulus, has failed on most key jobs measures, according to a new internal audit that found it was training workers who already had jobs that didn’t need green energy skills, and was failing to place new enrollees in jobs once they finished the training.

The Labor Department’s inspector general also said grantees who received the green jobs-training money did a poor job of reporting their results.

Only 38 percent of those who have completed training got jobs based on it, and only 16 percent kept jobs for at least six months — the key measure of success for the program.

And more --

About half were already working in the energy sector and wanted retraining, and half were potential new energy workers.

Of those workers who already had energy-sector jobs, the auditors said they were retrained, even though they didn’t need it.

“We found no evidence that the incumbent workers in our sample required services or training to keep their job or obtain a new one,” the investigators said in their report.

Original Post 

A huge "thank you" to a reader for sending me these two links.

Link here to The Foundry.

Satcon Technology Corp. announced the decision in a Wednesday news release. “This has been a difficult time for Satcon,” president and CEO Steve Rhoades said. “After careful consideration of available alternatives, the Company’s Board of Directors determined that the Chapter 11 filings were a necessary and prudent step, allowing the Company to continue to operate while giving us the opportunity to reorganize with a stronger balance sheet and capital structure.” 

Satcon received a $3 million DOE grant in January to develop “a compact, lightweight power conversion device that is capable of taking utility-scale solar power and outputting it directly into the electric utility grid at distribution voltage levels—eliminating the need for large transformers.”

This is the second taxpayer-backed green energy company to file for bankruptcy this week. 

From the same source, different link:

So far, 36 companies that have received federal support from taxpayers have either gone bankrupt or are laying off workers and are heading for bankruptcy. This list includes only those companies that received federal money from the Obama Administration’s Department of Energy. [This is unnecessary, in my mind. It's irresponsible, regardless of whose administration.]

The amount of money indicated does not reflect how much was actually received or spent but how much was offered. The amount also does not include other state, local, and federal tax credits and subsidies, which push the amount of money these companies have received from taxpayers even higher.

The complete list of faltering or bankrupt green-energy companies:

1. Evergreen Solar ($24 million)*
2. SpectraWatt ($500,000)*
3. Solyndra ($535 million)*
4. Beacon Power ($69 million)* -- see "update/correction" below
5. AES’s subsidiary Eastern Energy ($17.1 million) -- see "update/correction" below
6. Nevada Geothermal ($98.5 million)
7. SunPower ($1.5 billion)
8. First Solar ($1.46 billion)
9. Babcock and Brown ($178 million)
10. EnerDel’s subsidiary Ener1 ($118.5 million)*
11. Amonix ($5.9 million)
12. National Renewable Energy Lab ($200 million)
13. Fisker Automotive ($528 million)
14. Abound Solar ($374 million)*
15. A123 Systems ($279 million)*
16. Willard and Kelsey Solar Group ($6 million) -- see "update/correction" below
17. Johnson Controls ($299 million)
18. Schneider Electric ($86 million) -- see "update/correction" below
19. Brightsource ($1.6 billion)
20. ECOtality ($126.2 million)
21. Raser Technologies ($33 million)*
22. Energy Conversion Devices ($13.3 million)*
23. Mountain Plaza, Inc. ($2 million)*
24. Olsen’s Crop Service and Olsen’s Mills Acquisition Company ($10 million)*
25. Range Fuels ($80 million)*
26. Thompson River Power ($6.4 million)*
27. Stirling Energy Systems ($7 million)*
28. LSP Energy ($2.1 billion)* -- see "update/correction" below
29. UniSolar ($100 million)* -- see "update/correction" below
30. Azure Dynamics ($120 million)* -- see "update/correction" below
31. GreenVolts ($500,000)
32. Vestas ($50 million)
33. LG Chem’s subsidiary Compact Power ($150 million) -- see "correction" below
34. Nordic Windpower ($16 million)*
35. Navistar ($10 million)
36. Satcon ($3 million)*
37. Nissan Leaf battery facility, Smyrna, TN (see November 15, 2012, update above) 
38. Twin Creeks Technologies, Senatobia, MS ($26  million)* (see November 30, 2012, update above)

* Indicates filed for bankruptcy.

Of all the companies listed, this remains my favorite:

Twin Creeks Technologies. This is their $26 million website [update: surprisingly, this link is still up].  I assume this link will break soon -- the website is a single page, completely white except for a "sunburst" icon and "twincreeks technologies" all in lower case. That's the website. I can't make this stuff up. Here's the story:

Mississippi taxpayers may have only an empty Senatobia building and some solar panel equipment to show for nearly $26 million in loans provided to Twin Creeks Technologies.

The California-based solar technology firm is liquidating, and a company that bought Twin Creeks' assets does not intend to take over its agreement with Mississippi. The contract called for Twin Creeks to invest at least $132 million and create at least 500 jobs.

"Mississippi taxpayers may have only an empty Senatobia building and some solar panel equipment to show for nearly $26 million in loans" -- as you can see, this is not quite accurate. They also got a single page website with the logo.

Update: since the original list was posted, the source for this list, The Foundry, has noted some "corrections" which may affect the above list. None of the companies nor the government have contacted me to say the figures are incorrect. However, this from The Foundry:

Figures for four companies have been updated: Beacon Power received $43 million from the U.S. government, not $69 million as originally reported. Azure Dynamics received $5.4 million from the federal government, not $120 million as originally reported. Compact Power Inc. received $151 million as part of the stimulus, not $150 million as originally reported. Willard and Kelsey Solar Group received $700,981 in government funding, not $6 million as originally reported.

The following companies have been removed from the original list: AES’s subsidiary Eastern Energy, LSP Energy, Schneider Electric, and Uni-Solar did not receive government-backed loans, based on additional research. The National Renewable Energy Lab did received $200 million in stimulus funding, but it is a government laboratory.

************************

Miscellaneous Reports of Green-Energy-Taxpayer-Supported Industries Waste List

LG Chem, Holland, Michigan (regional link may break); Volt-battery maker; no work; employees playing cards to occupy their days;

Another One Bites The Dust

Updates

October 26, 2012: Another one bites the dust -- Al gore's Current TV is up for sale!

Original Post

Link here to Bloomberg.com.

A123 Systems Inc. (AONE), the electric car battery maker that received a $249 million federal grant, filed for bankruptcy protection after failing to make a debt payment that was due yesterday.

The filing may fuel further political debate over government financing of alternative-energy and transportation businesses. Federal grants and loans to companies including A123, Fisker Automotive Inc. and Tesla Motors Inc. have drawn scrutiny from congressional Republicans following the September 2011 bankruptcy filing of solar-panel maker Solyndra LLC two years after it received a $535 million loan guarantee from the U.S. Energy Department.

The company's automobile business assets were sold to Johnson Controls, I believe. 

In the Summertime, Mungo Jerry