Yet Another Renewable/Alternate/Green Energy Company Ready To Go Under

Drudge Report Says This is The Third This Week!
I've Lost Count! 
Natural Gas: New Low -- $2.50!

Link to Las Vegas Sun here.

Just seven months after California-based solar power company Amonix Inc. opened its largest manufacturing plant, in North Las Vegas, the company’s contractor has laid off nearly two-thirds of its workforce.

Flextronics Industrial, the Singapore solar panel manufacturer that partnered with Amonix to staff the new $18 million, 214,000-square-foot plant, laid off about 200 of its 300-plus employees Tuesday.

Amonix’s director of manufacturing operations, Eric Culberson, said the layoffs are part of “retooling” the factory as the company prepares to roll out its next-generation product. [And that product would be?]

Lewis said employees were confused and disappointed when they heard the news and were directed by human resources to look for other local jobs in retail. [Which sounds like the company does not plan to re-hire, or bring them back.]

"With a promise to bring hundreds of clean energy jobs and boost the hard-hit North Las Vegas economy, the plant was heralded as a success earlier this month by Mayor Shari Buck in her state of the city address.

Buck said Wednesday that she was aware of the layoffs but has faith the company will bring back the jobs.

How's that hope and change working out for you? Or was that, "hope there's a change"? I forget.

Week 4: January 22, 2012 -- January 28, 2012

California governor fires anti-oil bureaucrats

Food shortage in Williston 

Williston #6 on Forbes' fastest-growing small town list

Results of recent January 24, 2012 lease sale: bonus of $10,000/acre

EURs too conservative

Update on the Tyler

History of horizontal drilling in the Tyler

Wildcat targeting the Tyler

The Helis Grail; a monster well 

Ross Gas Plant - another CRYO natural gas processing plant

BNSF opens $30 million rail year east of Minot

Those "radioactive" bags of Chinese ceramics -- never mind

New 80-room hotel near Dickinson, ND  (South Heart)

Triangle Petroleum multi-pad schematic; dedicated frack spread 

Elks building: new luxury hotel?

For investors:

• GeoResources: one of the stronger shale oil companies in the Bakken
• NOG bests AAPL (past five years)
• NOG, CLR: top the list for profit margins

One Last Breath, Badluck Bandits

This Could Be the Story of the Week -- And There Have Been Some Incredible Stories This Week -- Sort Of Related To the Bakken

Governor Moonbean Fires Anti-Oil Bureaucrats!

Governor Brown, California: drill, drill, drill.

Hell must be freezing over.

Link here to Los Angeles Times.

Late last year, Gov. Jerry Brown pushed for a top state regulator to ease key requirements for companies seeking to tap California's oil. The official balked.

Relaxing rules on underground injection, a risky method of oil extraction common in the state, would violate environmental laws, wrote Derek Chernow, then head of the Department of Conservation, in a memo obtained by The Times.

The process, in which a rush of steam, water and chemicals flushes oil from old wells, had been linked to spills, eruptions and a Kern County worker's death. The federal government had asked the state to tighten its regulations, but the oil industry complained that the stringent rules were killing jobs.

A week after Chernow wrote his memo, Brown had him fired, along with a deputy, Elena Miller. The governor appointed replacements who agreed to stop subjecting every injection project to a top-to-bottom review before issuing a permit.

Brown's decision to side with energy interests over his regulators reflects the economic and political pressures on the governor during his return engagement in Sacramento. The economy is still sluggish in the wake of a deep recession, and unemployment remains high.

Although Brown has fought offshore drilling and sued oil companies throughout his career, making him a favorite of environmentalists, he now talks of tossing cumbersome regulations to revive the economy. The oil industry, in particular, employs tens of thousands of Californians, many of them in Kern County, where the jobless rate is 14.5%.

It is generally thought that Governor Brown is in the twilight of his political career. It's nice to think that he may be actually feeling the pain of the unemployed, and no longer worried about re-election, is doing whatever is necessary to help some dads get back to work.

This is an incredible story. I know the realists and the cynics will say this is just political posturing -- although I can't figure out what that posturing would be -- I like to think that the governor truly feels the pain of the unemployed.

Some "Feel Good" Stories -- Much Needed -- And Appreciated -- The Williston Basin, North Dakota, USA

Link here to Dickinson 7.

The link will be broken sooner or later ... but that's okay ... it's a great story ....

Oil-field work can be dirty work. The oil, grease, and dirt can coat the skin, cover your clothes, and really mess up other clothing in your washing machine.

But one Williston family saw this as an opportunity, and because of it they more than doubled the size of their business.

Now Village Laundry employs 25 workers, and its owners say it’s one of the few shops like it of its kind. They have a special boiler, as well as agitators and soaps to get the oil out.

They also have laundry machines that can hold up to 160 lbs of dirty clothes. They say as the business continues to grow, the plan is to add even more.

Did He Really Say This? -- Absolutely Nothing To With The Bakken

Link here.

Did he really say this?

The General Motors Co. Chevrolet Volt, the first mass-market electric vehicle sold by a U.S. automaker, has become a “political punching bag,” GM Chief Executive Officer Dan Akerson said.

Akerson, testifying before a U.S. House panel today, said the Volt, which the company is fixing after fires following crash tests, is engineered for safety.

“Unfortunately, there is one thing we did not engineer,” Akerson told a House subcommittee led by Representative Jim Jordan, an Ohio Republican. “Although we loaded the Volt with state-of-the-art safety features, we did not engineer the Volt to be a political punching bag. And that, sadly, is what the Volt has become.” 

Did he?

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

The GM CEO is still a salesman.

When Apple was struggling years ago and when Dell was saying that Apple should simple liquidate and close shop, Steve Jobs kept pressing on. One needs to keep selling the product no matter what. One does not say his/her product has become the laughing stock of the industry.

This would be the same as if I walked into a Chevy dealer to look at the Volt, and to be told by the salesman, "Yes, it's a beautiful car isn't it? Unfortunately it's become the laughing stock of the automobile industry." That would certainly turn me off.

I didn't pay much attention to the rest of the article but it certainly makes me think the CEO used this as a trial balloon to prepare the public / the government for the news that GM will throw in the towel with regard to the Volt.

GM can't afford to keep losing money on the Volt. Dealers don't want it (earlier story). People are no longer coming into showrooms to see it. And the bean counters in the back rooms of GM headquarters are showing the front office how much they are losing with the Volt program. It can't go on much longer.

The Volt was simply an experiment that failed. Badly.