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Special Report
Another ‘Green Energy’ Failure?
Another Obama-Biden success story? Mitt Romney blamed.
The residents at Boxwood, Stanton, Brandywine Springs and other surrounding communities may have lost the opportunity to get back to work at a nearby automobile assembly line.
Many of these residents were among the work force at the General Motors Boxwood Road plant outside Wilmington, Delaware. The plant was closed in July 2009 as part of the GM bankruptcy orchestrated by the Obama Administration. The Boxwood plant produced the Pontiac Solstice and Saturn Sky roadsters. GM shed the Pontiac and Saturn (as well as Saab and Hummer) nameplates as part of the company’s bankruptcy reorganization.
Three months after the closing, Vice President Joe Biden visited the Boxwood plant. He announced $529 million in taxpayer guaranteed, low-interest Department of Energy loans to the California-based “green energy” auto manufacturer Fisker Automotive. In return Fisker would establish a vehicle assembly operation at the plant in Biden’s home state. Biden promised, “This is seed money that will return back to the American consumer in billions and billions and billions of dollars in good new jobs.”
The vice president was joined by Delaware Governor Jack Markell (D), U.S. Senator Tom Carper (D) and then-U.S. Representative Mike Castle (R). About 1,000 United Auto Workers stood in as the political and literal background for Biden’s announcement. Biden also promised that the plant would be turning out 100,000 cars a year by 2014.
The state of Delaware also gave a $22 million economic development and utility loan package to Fisker. The loans would automatically become grants if Fisker created a promised 2,495 jobs.
Fisker was founded by Henrik Fisker and Bernhard Koehler, a pair of senior executives formerly with German automaker BMW.
In July 2010, Fisker Automotive completed the purchase of the 3.2 million square foot Boxwood plant for $18 million and another $2 million was paid for assembly line equipment and a modern paint shop. Shortly thereafter, workers began the process of removing the installed assembly line equipment. Reportedly, about $18 million of the $22 million in state aid has already been spent.
Fisker has spent $193 million of the $529 million federal loan package. That money went to the production of Fisker’s “Karma,” a luxury, four-passenger sports car with a base MSRP of $102,000 and costing almost $120,000 with added options. The Karma is being built in Finland in limited numbers.
Fisker named its more affordable passenger vehicle the “Atlantic” — if one believes an MSRP of about $50,000 is “affordable.” According to a 2012 New York auto show report, the Atlantic is similar in styling to the Karma and also features four-passenger seating, which limits its usefulness to many American families. Even with tax credits, the car will sell for a hefty premium above the price of a typical mid-sized family automobile.
Unfortunately for the car manufacturer, the Department of Energy-Fisker money-train appears to have derailed. No additional money beyond the $193 million has been disbursed to the green-energy car company since 2011. There have been hints that Fisker has failed to reach established milestones in order to trigger additional disbursements. But the blame for the loan delay, according to former Fisker chairman Ray Lane, lies with Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.
“The DOE would have negotiated a new draw timeframe by now if it weren’t for Romney targeting these loans,” he claimed. Lane is a partner with Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, a major investor in Fisker. Lane is also a longtime major donor to both Republican and Democrat political campaigns.
Fisker Automotive’s financial and milestone concerns were enough to lead to an executive shake-up earlier this year. Henrik Fisker was relieved of duties as chief executive and was moved into the role of chairman replacing Lane. Fisker was replaced as the car company’s chief executive by Tom LaSorda, former Chrysler CEO, who also assumed the duties of vice chairman.
The car maker had indicated in 2010 the Atlantic would be in full production at the Boxwood plant by the summer of 2012. To date, the facility has not been retooled, according to Fisker officials and local area businesses. Fallout from the loan freeze and production delays has impacted another green energy company. A123 Systems, a supplier to Fisker of electric car batteries, has also been affected (“Solyndra Nation,” The American Spectator, April 2012).
There were about 50 people working at the plant in the beginning of 2012. Fisker laid off about half of them early in the year and most of the rest just weeks ago, leaving a handful in place.
There were only four cars in the entire complex’s massive parking lots on the week day we visited the plant late last month. A man identifying himself as the site manager refused to answer our questions other than to confirm Fisker Automotive owned the plant before asking us to leave the property.
About the Author
Mark Hyman hosts “Behind the Headlines,” a commentary program for Sinclair Broadcast Group. You can follow him on Twitter at @markhyman.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (58) | Leave a comment
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Von Mises Jr| 5.2.12 @ 7:28AM
We could give it to Moochelle for a no-show job?
TLP| 5.2.12 @ 8:32AM
Yeah.
Or we could have her husband do it.
I know that he's already got one No Show Job.
But, since they're No Shows, it probably doesn't matter how many you have.
Right?
Von Mises Jr| 5.2.12 @ 9:06AM
We have two too many now, TLP. Apparently the job description for POTUS and FLOTUS now says: Must be willing to travel the world and party. Stealing is a prerequisite.
Jack in Wi.| 5.2.12 @ 7:29AM
Obama has been a disaster on the energy issue. He should be easy to attack as the prices of oil skyrocket. Will Romney have a good energy policy? I hope he brings to it the table in an effective way. So far, in my opinion, he seems to be rather rudderless. He just doesn't have the command of the issues, the way he should. He is just a tool in the hands of his handlers and consultants. In other words he is just like Obama, a frontman.
squalis| 5.2.12 @ 9:57AM
Why should you care? You won't be voting for Romney.
JmsA| 5.2.12 @ 11:03AM
He's not the only one. Many so called conservatives, including some who post herein, would rather Obama be reelected than vote for Romney. And you all know who you are.
Quartermaster| 5.2.12 @ 8:44PM
And there my friend is the heart of the so called conservatives problem, which is actually the Establishment sheep problem. Real Conservatives know that Mittens isn't enough different from the Kenyan to matter. You might get lucky, but you're probably going to get another RINO, at best with different faces for the talking head reports, but that's about it. If you want to think otherwise, have a blast.
Bluntly, I seriously doubt Mittens will defeat the Kenyan in November. He can trash Republicans, but I doubt he will trash Obama.
Richard| 5.3.12 @ 12:20AM
My God, what a stupid thing to say. If you think that Romney and Obama are the same you have
-0- political intelligence--unless you are a lying Democrat trying to confuse the issue.
merlin| 5.3.12 @ 6:54AM
Richard,
If you are approaching a cliff at 70 mph, you need to stop and put it in reverse. If you slow down to 35, what have you accomplished except to confuse the difference between republicans and progressives? When you understand this simple concept, you will understand why many conservatives are unwilling to vote for any RINO.
Yes, Romney would be an improvement. He may be able to earn my vote. However, unless we reduce the size and reach of the Federal government, reform entitlements and start paying down the debt, what have we accomplished? Ask yourself, "Is there a limit or a consequence to borrowing and printing money?"
SC Mike| 5.2.12 @ 7:29AM
“The question is what will the Department of Energy do with the $336 million already earmarked but not yet disbursed to Fisker Automotive?”
The money will probably be used to offset / conceal more ObamaCare expenses.
TLP| 5.2.12 @ 8:24AM
How does it go? A FOOL and HIS MONEY are soon parted?
One has to wonder what this Country would look like, today, if we actually had a Free, and FAIR Press. Can you imagine the OUTRAGE of every Liberal so-called News Outlets if President Romney had just pissed away Millions of Taxpayer Cash on an Unproven Car, that only THE RICH can afford, made by some Fly by Night Car Company, run by a bunch of Crony Capital Campaign Contributors, who took the Money and then ran to Finland with it, in the Dead of Night, after stripping the Fascility bare?
How many Fiskers have we been through? How many Solyndras? How many Global Crossings? How many $800 Billion Stimulus Lies, that Created NOTHING, for ANYBODY, unless you belonged to State Public Eployee Unions, or had Deep Pockets with Pro Obama bent.
A House Divided, Can Not Stand.
I remember when the Biggest Donour to the Democrat Party - (Bernard Schwartz) - got the RAPIST - (Bill Clinton) - to give his Company - (Loral Space) - a Waiver, so that he could sell the Red Chinese the Navigational Technologies that now sit on their Nuclear ICBMs, that are pointed at US.
Remember that one?
Everyone who ran an Agency comprised of letters, instead of words, implored him to tell Schwartz - No. The FBI. The CIA. The NSA. Hell, the PTA would have told him not too sign it, if anyone had asked them. The Joint Chiefs told him not to do it. His Attorney General tolgd him not to do it. I heard that even Monica Lewinski told him not too, but that, for some reason, her words were too garbled for him to make them out.
The Media's reaction?
Not a word.
He was accused of Rape, on the #1 Show on Television, in Prime Time, on a Sunday Night. RAPE!
The Media asked him a total of ONE QUESTION, that he refused to answer, and it was NEVER spoken of, again. In fact, I believe that CNN's Suzanne Malvaeux offered to fill in for Monica, if she ever needed a breather.
He was found, by a Federal Judge, to have LIED, in a Court of Law, in a Case involving him EXPOSING HIS GENITALS to a young woman whom he had just met.
The Media's reaction? SHE was a SLUT, and instead of making a big stink about tip, she should've just got down on her knees, done what she was told, and then, THANKED HIM, for letting her be his Whore. And, the Special Prosecutor was a SEX PERVERT.
Today is no different.
I remember when Playing Golf while a War was going on was VERBOTEN!
I remember when Associating with Communists, Marxists, Domestic and Foreign Terrorists, and Enemies of this Country, were things that would get you a good SHUNNING, and not a Presidential Nomination.
Not any more.
I remember when buying New Dishes for the White House, let alone having Lavish Parties with Movie Stars and Music Stars and Millionaires and Billionaires (as is done these days) was "Outrageously OUT OF TOUCH!" And wearing a Nice Gown that was LENT to you by a Designer, made you "The Queen of Hollywood", if not an outright Whore.
We have a man in the White House with all of his Pertinent Information locked away in a VAULT, on an Island in the Middle of the Pacific Ocean, and the press could GIVE A SHIT. We never saw The Rapist's Medical Records, and we've never seen The Muslim's Medical Records. We're not allowed to see his Passport, his College Thesis, his College Records or his College Fullbright Scholarship Papers, let alone get an explanation of how a the Son of an Atheist Communist and a Muslim Marxist, "supposedly" born in Hawaii, has a CONNECTICUT Social Security Number.
That used to be NEWS. That's what Investigative Reporters used to lie awake at night, DREAMING about such things. "Oh, Great Gaea. Why couldn't he be a Republican?"
If his name was Mitt Romney, and not Barack Hussein Obama, and if he were WHITE, and not the Mulatto that he is, everyone who gets their SCRIPTS from Media Matters, every day, would be asking, RELENTLESSLY - "What is he hiding?"
And everybody knows it.
The Founding Fathers gave the Press the job of FIRST RESPONDER, in charge of Safeguarding our Liberties, but they've made the decision that they'd rather kneel before their Democrat Leaders, like some 30 Year old Slut, from Georgetown, rather than stand up, like a Man, and take seriously, the task that has been bestowed upon them.
They're all Julianne Malvaeuxs now.
They suck.
And, we're paying the price for it.
bill| 5.2.12 @ 1:23PM
But what about all those principled and ethical people in the numerous government agencies and in the military, who, having witnessed the anti-American and very likely treasonous behavior of clinton and now obama, quit in protest because they simply could no longer serve a president who willfully does massive harm to this great country? They were wonderful role models who put moral clarity and great courage above all else, heh? Thank goodness for all those brave and inspiring leaders!
Fairbanks99| 5.2.12 @ 3:17PM
I was in the Navy during Sick Billy's time and knew more than one person who opted not to re-enlist because of his stated goal of gays serving openly.
Louis Jenkins| 5.2.12 @ 8:36AM
The hits just keep coming folks! Apparently the congress doesn't want to ask questions about Obama's past. They'd be too embaressed once the truth came out, if it ever will. Obama has made a mockery of our electorial process, making it null and void. Each candidate is vetted by long time established political parties, even to the point of threatening death to the more inquisitive. And the imposter makes sure that some of the stimulus money is returned to him for political action purposes. The restrictive regulations for common people, well, they get more and more numerous. It is absolutely amazing that we have this man in the White House.
albert constantine jr.| 5.2.12 @ 9:02AM
The plant described herein (less than a mile from my house) was once the largest employer in the 19804 zip code, and one of the major employment sites in Delaware. The State of Delaware (which includes the school districts) is now the largest employer in Delaware.
During the last 20 years, the Democrats have controlled the Governor’s Office here, and during that time, they are the majority in the State Senate. They have been in total control of every statewide office except the State Auditor since 2006, and both Houses of the State Legislature since 2008. They’ve held both U.S. Senate seats since 2000, and captured the congressional seat in 2010. The state has gone for the Democrat in every Presidential election after 1988, and we take the blame for the current VPOTUS.
My fellow Delawareans have seen their chickens come home to roost from supporting this one party rule here. Not only is the Boxwood Road former GM Plant shuttered, but the Chrysler Plant in Newark (20 minutes away) also no longer makes cars (it is now University of Delaware property dedicated to making….”green energy”). All of the loyal UAW workers who once ventured forth to work the polls each election day now have an additional 364 days each year to help out the Democratic politicians they elected, since their high paid ($40-$75K per annum) manufacturing jobs no longer exist.
The crack dealers in the parking lot of Ted’s Liquors in Belvedere have felt the pinch, as the booming business they would do during lunch break at the plant has dried up. The line to cash a check at Steve’s Centreville Inn (the nearest on/off licensed premise to the plant) also seems shorter. It no longer takes 20 minutes to negotiate the two miles home from St. Matthew School down Boxwood Road at shift change, but that is not just because the plant closed: St. Matthew closed in 2011 after nearly 70 years due to declining enrollment in the parochial school.
To Joe Biden and the rest of Democrats (and you can add Mike Castle if it makes you feel better): thanks, jackasses.
Of course, I realize that economies aren’t really controlled by state officials, but all of the above sure tried to take credit for everything when they thought it was working. I know, it is really George Bush’s fault (or is that about to change to Mitt Romney’s fault).
kwan| 5.2.12 @ 10:23AM
Thank you Albert for this clear and concise report on how the Democrat/Communist Party is "Winning the Future" for the American people. Obama's new slogan is "Forward" what a joke.
Al Adab| 5.2.12 @ 12:01PM
But they mean well, their intentions are so pure. They want to save the earth and all of us from our selves. Certainly the central planner know best what is good for us. The oceans must recede and the temperature decline; the ice caps be restored and dirty oil made a thing of the past. The ends always justify the means, don't they?
facetious font required
Ground Control| 5.2.12 @ 3:12PM
Someone should pull up that old (1984) Apple Computer TV ad with the executive drones all walking in an unbroken line "FORWARD!" and one by one falling over the precipice. Cut back and forth between Bozo's campaign speeches and the marching drones, and I think you would have an effective TV ad.
Bobloblaw| 5.2.12 @ 6:34PM
The more liberalism fails, the more people vote for liberals. Failure in DE wont result in voters supporting the GOP or conservative ideas. If it did, Detroit would be the most conservative city in the country.
The Big E| 5.2.12 @ 9:15AM
A few weeks back my wife and I went shopping in Winston-Salem and as we turned onto Stratford Rd, low and behold, there where the Hummer dealership used to be, was a Lotus dealership.
Now, I'm 6'4" and go about 330lbs, so I have no hope of EVER fitting into any Lotus, but they're still cool cars, and I like cars, so we stopped to look. Once there, I dsicovered that it was also a Fisker dealership, and indeed, they had two Karma's in stock.
I will say this, comparisons to the Toyota Prius are way off base, as it is obvious that Fisker is not trying to compete with Totyota, their trying to compete with other $100,000 cars. The Karma looked like a $100,000 car inside and out. It is large yet beautifully styled, and would not look at all out of place beside an Aston-Martin or Maserati. My undestanding is that its power output is comparable to those cars as well, though of course, I did not drive the car and so cannot report first hand on what it's like to drive. Were I in the market for a $100,000 car (which I am not am will never be), I would certainly consider it alongside other cars at that price.
That said, I find it rather odd that when the Obama admin decided to finance the construction of a "green" car, they chose one which only the wealthy they claim to despise so much could ever buy. Fisker could never build products on the scale of a GM, simply because their products are priced to compete with Porsches - and based on my cursory observation of one on a lot, are properly priced to compete with porsches.
Wonder what the Wall Street Occupiers think of that?
The sad part of this tale is that Fisker may well be building an impressive car, but like most companies which rely on federal largess to give them an "advantage" in the marketplace, it is probably doomed to failure. The easy way out leads inevitably leads to destruction, and Fisker has clearly taken the easy way when it comes to financing their operations.
The Big E| 5.2.12 @ 9:17AM
Please excuse my many typos this morning. Sorry.
JimH| 5.2.12 @ 10:36AM
The Tesla is not a 'people's car' either.
Todd S| 5.2.12 @ 1:06PM
This car is for his Hollywood and Silicon Valley buddies so they can feel even more superior driving around in their $100,000 electric sports car "saving" the environment. The market for this vehicle is not big enough to make it fiscally feasible so the taxpayers have to subsidize it obviously, you can't put a price on the value of the liberal elite to feel smugly superior.
glenny| 5.2.12 @ 4:07PM
The Karma sounds like a vehicle for the 1%.
glenny
Quartermaster| 5.2.12 @ 8:50PM
The Green Cars for the 1%. Of course, the Demoncrats love the 1% just as the Nazis loved the industrialists, as long as they toed the Party line.
Anthony| 5.2.12 @ 9:41AM
Frisk Us Automotive lives!!!!
Dittohead| 5.2.12 @ 9:43AM
Rush is right! Green energy is a communist plot. Energy by its very definition must be dirty and polluting. Only commies care about clean air and the environment anyway. Smog is as American as apple pie and smells just as good!
albert constantine jr.| 5.2.12 @ 9:55AM
Was Monkey Overstreet not available today?
Dittohead| 5.2.12 @ 1:51PM
So what if oil props up African dictators who must be bribed millions of dollars by Exxon? Me and El Rushbo will take cheap fossil fuels over human rights and green energy any day!
TexasMom2012| 5.2.12 @ 3:57PM
Well we could use nuclear power but the enviros can't have that. How about coal? Nope, new regs causing plant closures so we are shipping coal to dirtier plants in China. Less and less drilling allowed on federal lands while we the American taxpayer finance Soros Brazillian oil fields. No ANWR. We cannot run this economy, even as slow as it is on wind power or environmentally destructive ethanol... We couldn't even if you covered the entire state of Texas with wind farms and all of Arizone with solar panels. Might as well depend on unicorn farts? If Obama would lead, follow or get the hell out of the way of American business, we could produce enough cheap oil and gas to revive our economy. In 2000, the argument against ANWR was but but but it will take 10 years! Well now it has been 12 we could have been reaping the benefits for the last 2 years, the economy would be out of the crapper and Obama might have been reelected. Oh the irony, ROTFLMAO!
Brainless liberal| 5.2.12 @ 1:24PM
Oil is bad and I hate oil companies and the government should obviously heavily subsidize $100,000 electric sport cars so the liberal elite can feel good about not using dirty oil and look cool doing so. It is really hard to look cool driving a Prius as you surely have noticed. Like Steven Chu, I believe gasoline should be $9 per gallon like a good socialist European country. He won a Nobel Prize so he obviously knows everything there is to know about energy unlike you anti-science conservatives. Al Gore has already proved without doubt that man-made global warming will destroy humankind unless we do exactly what he says and if he becomes a billionaire is the process, he will deserve it for being such a compassionate liberal.
Dittohead| 5.2.12 @ 1:54PM
Wrong, oil is good and we love oil companies and they love us and we should give oil companies money so they can bribe African dictators in Chad and kill their stupid opponents, because driving a Prius would be gay. Anyway, global warming is good because it helps us find all kinds of new oil deposits in the arctic!
Brainless liberal| 5.2.12 @ 2:49PM
Oil is the energy of the past and everyone knows we would all be driving electric cars and solar panels on our houses if it was not for the evil oil companies. Solyndra only went bankrupt because we only gave them a measly $500 million dollars, you can't run a business with such meager resources. If they got $50 billion like GM, I am sure they would be thriving today and make solar power affordable just like Barney Frank made housing affordable for everyone. Fracking is poisoning our water supply and don't tell me there is no proof of it because I know it to be true and I do not need facts. And everyone knows that increasing the supply of oil and gas in the US has no effect on price, why do that when we can just beg the Saudi's to pump more like Obama does? It is an election year after all, $9 per gallon will have to wait until Obama's second term but by then we will all have magical green energy when we put the dirty coal plants out of business. Forward on to fundamental change!
Dittohead| 5.2.12 @ 3:53PM
Pinko Commie.
A. Fox| 5.2.12 @ 7:18PM
Show me the facts... just because you say so does not make it fact! No, obama will not be reelected
he will lose. You libs just like all of your kind do not
understand anything about how business works because you have never owned one. It's the economy STUPID! I have owned 3 business...
a transportation co., a real estate co., and an advertisement co., hey lib it's the economy studid!
Todd S| 5.2.12 @ 10:31PM
You do realize that brainless liberal is satire right? Good satire because it is truly how they think however stupid it sounds.
Quartermaster| 5.2.12 @ 8:52PM
Yeppers! We should be running high speed trains and mass transit powered by onboard fast Breeder Reactors.
BodieInSD| 5.2.12 @ 5:57PM
Vaclev Havel (Czech Republic) long ago called the enviromental movement "watermelons". Green on the outside, RED on the inside.
Might be, "Hey the crazy old man is right!"
kwan| 5.2.12 @ 10:51AM
In keeping with the direction that Obama and the left have the country going I would think that converting this plant to the production of bullock carts may be a solution. Bullock carts are used in many third world countries, and no doubt with another four years of Obama economic policies the United States will be classified as a third world country.
Col Bat Guano| 5.2.12 @ 10:52AM
Why are we wasting money on all this green crap? Electric cars, really? Especially when Toyota has shown hybrids can function well and normal people other than Hollyweirdos can actually buy the damn things!
cicero| 5.2.12 @ 11:25AM
Everybedy seems to miss the point of this exercise. It has nothing to do with providing jobs, or supporting green energy. Those are just the excuses to shovel the peoples' money into the vaults of the folks who keep the Dems in power. Do you really think it is from lack of work that the Dem senate has failed to pass a budget in the past 3 1/2 years? There has been absolutely no accoutnability for the trillions per year that have been bulldozed out of the treasury and into the pockets of the friends of dems. When this charade finally comes to an end, the party in power will inflate the currency to pay the tab, and the rich will march off to their next party. No one will go to jail. The poor will still be with us. And the middle class will be left to eat their children.
Al Adab| 5.2.12 @ 11:57AM
Thanks Cicero. A clear and honest analysis.
Dec| 5.3.12 @ 12:19AM
Amen.
bill| 5.2.12 @ 11:43AM
A couple of bored refugees from a German car company selling overpriced cars start another overpriced car company run by an executive from a third rate American car company (now owned by a fourth rate Italian car company) con the con man running the fifth rate US government out of millions of dollars....what could possibly go wrong? Like no one could see that there was longstanding overcapacity in the automobile manufacturing business and the last thing that was going to be successful was yet another auto manufacturer of any color? But wait, this isn't about successful business creation is it?
Anthony| 5.2.12 @ 11:47AM
So where are bobbyvee, vtwin and Purp today touting the great Obozo economic recovery?
Yes, I'd say 38 CONSECUTIVE months of 8%+ unemployment, (actually 15%) and a GDP that is below the growth of Mexico is sure something to spike the football about.
Now that the Mexicans have abandoned America to go back home where the jobs are, we can truly say "Americans, doing the jobs Mexicans won't do".
Thank you president Obozo!!
Richard Baker| 5.2.12 @ 11:48AM
Delorean started this "give me money and I'll build a car in your backyard" game with the Irish government. Obviously, since then the government idiots have learned nothing about this sort of scam. Mind you, this largesse is being done with money we DON'T have.
Bill| 5.2.12 @ 11:49AM
Green energy is a hoax, and who cares whether it fails or succeedes?
Brubaker| 5.2.12 @ 12:11PM
Thanks for an excellent post, but I'd have to say, there's no way I'd buy any car called "Fisker." The name has all the allure of "Edsel."
Tom Kyba| 5.2.12 @ 1:58PM
Thanks to TLP for pointing out the single most important factor contributing to the current malaise in our culture. THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA. If CNN, NBC,ABC, the New York Times, The Washington Post etc. decided to hold the left to the same standard they apply to the right, if they decided that each separate station and newspaper would cover a different issue, just to save time, it would still take them a decade of reporting 7 days a week 24 hours a day to catch up with all of the dirty dealings of the Dems and their friends.
Anthony| 5.2.12 @ 3:28PM
"Billions and billions and billions in good paying jobs" Joe Biteme.
Can we waterboard this fool so at least we Americans can get some satisfaction for all our money wasted?
Pat| 5.2.12 @ 4:27PM
Governments, particularly governments in the West, follow the Law of Entropy, or as someone with a PhD and still paying off his or her student loan would snidely point out it, Entropy actually refers to the Second Law of Thermodynamics. The First Law of Thermodynamics says energy is neither created or destroyed – and this important Law reflects our government in action with considerable scientific accuracy – nothing truly useful is created by government but no government bureaucracy, once created, is ever destroyed. But the Law of Entropy doesn’t technically mean the complete destruction of rational order over time – the Nature Channel got that one wrong.
It actually means that within a closed system, like our government, no additional energy can be added or lost. But all that energy within our “system of government” must degenerate in useful purpose over time due to the laws of statistical mechanics – an inevitable and unceasing process we taxpayers refer to as “electing idiots”. Now a young physicist still making payments on his government loan would correct that technical reference to “electing idiots” by noting that order can be built up within a closed system – but only at the price of creating disorder within other parts of the system.
Sounds complicated, right? But think of it this way. In its unceasing quest to control every facet of our lives, our government creates more new laws which spawn more new bureaucracies which eventually, due to the “electing idiots” theorem of statistical mechanics, become more and more dysfunctional over time in order to provide the necessary free energy to create even more new bureaucracies. So, when will all this entropy nonsense end? It doesn’t – at least according to the Third Law of Thermodynamics. Like our political campaigns, the Third Law says government will just go on and on till we expire from boredom or an unsophisticated band of Middle Eastern Visigoths quietly conquers Washington D. C. while the rest of us are flipping through 347 cable stations searching for something interesting to watch.
TexasMom2012| 5.2.12 @ 4:51PM
Billions and billions in slush funds for dem donors all provided by our grandchildren...
POST American| 5.3.12 @ 12:30AM
"When we get through with you
----YOU'LL WISH YOU WERE A TREE."
Maurice Strong
UN Director
Globalist
EUGENIST
--PSYCHOPATH--
(RIO Summit 1992)
And June is to see RIO + 20 which will
be inaugurating the 'hard power' implementation
of capstone Globalist control ---and FINAL
EUGENICS.
Think we exaggerate?
CHECK THE AGENDA.
"Understand, ALLLL of these international
organizations are unelected, unchartered,
ILLEGAL. --NO ONE's given them the authority
to be doing anything! This is just a bunch of
rich, inbred EEL-eats declaring their own
club and taking over the world."
-Informed online
AGAIN, always keep before you the
archetypal link between psychopathic EE-eats,
their 'fave' instrument of plunder and
CON--troll, USURY ---and the ever 'on the
go' endgame ----DEMOCIDE.
"By 2000 EUGENICS had shed much
of its NAZI baggage."
-ENDGAME documentary online
(10 MILLION views)
"In 2012, with 'RIO + 20' and the shameless
weaponization of shots and med, food, water
and air, and the shameless push for
'post natal' abortion (ie infanticide)
--euthanasia --sterilization and gencidal
'land clearance' across the third world
------ it can be said NAZISM itself has lost
much of its NAZI baggage."
-POST American
---BELIEVE IT!
Bob S| 5.3.12 @ 2:02AM
Gee, what a surprise, another green company failed.
messup| 5.4.12 @ 1:03AM
Since March 2011 to March 2012, 26 enterprises directly or indirectly related to America’s renewable energy iniciatives have or are in the process of filing for bankruptcy. Some 45 coal fired electricity producing plants have been closed(off grid), with another 160 or so scheduled for closing by EPA in the not too distant future. Coupled to this EPA iniciative are some 5 or 6 coal mine closures with another 14 scheduled for closing this year. These numbers have devastated whole communities, increased unemployment and swelled the ranks of government welfare recipients. Nowhere is this, U-3 or U-6, unemployment number reported.
This is a comprehensive list of failed “Green” iniciatives by this administration, unreported, but very real. Cost to taxpayers: $1.1 trillion dollars.
March 2011 to March 2012.
Evergreen Solar, Solyndra, Luminant Energy, Ecotality, Raser Technologies, Nevada Geothermal Power, US Geothermal, Fisker Electronic Car Co., Tesla Electronic Car Co., Ameren Corp., Beacon Power Corp., General Motors, A123, Enerdel, Johnson Controls(Apterra Car Maker), Range Fuels(later bought by Lunatech, New Zealand + $7 million dollars in grants), TARP (bailed out 458 companies), Enerl Ind. And Enerdel, Amonix, Pathstone, First Energy Corp., Energy Conversion Devices (ECD), United Solar Ovonic, Abound Solar, Solar Trust of America, Solar Millinium (Germany).
Renewable “Green” energy source requirements (2010 reports) have increased costs, on average 32%:
1)29 states have adopted new standards including DC and Puerto Rico
2)Residential rate increases = 31.9% higher than in remaining 21 other states
3)Industrial rate increases = 30.7% higher
4)Commercial rate increases = 27.4% higher
Some facts:
1)Wind was 17 times higher than the cost of nuclear power
2)Wind was 5 times higher than the cost of coal power
3)Solar was 31 times higher than the cost of nuclear power
4)Solar was 9 times higher than the cost of coal power
As of 3/29/2011 Nuclear power generated 13.5% of all world electricity and solar a mere 0.6%.
Solar panel production:
China: 2003= 1%....2009= 38%
USA: 2003=14%...2009= 4%
USA Manufacturing Jobs: 1979= 19.4 million…2010=11.5 million
USA service employees: 1979= 64.9 million…2010=112.1 million
Total manufacturing facilities: 2001= 398,887…2010=342,647 million (loss of 56,240) 2010 alone 8,660 factories closed their doors. Or 14/day for the 11 year period.
This is this administration’s legacy to We The People of the USof A. Wake-up. It will take a generation to restore merely what has been lost. Amen.
Breaking News: Solar Company Gets Loan Guarantee From Taxpayers And Lays Off Workers
(26 Apr 2012) First Solar Inc., the largest solar panel manufacturer in the U.S., is laying off 2,000 workers (30%) and closing factories, after receiving $3.1 billion in federal loan guarantees last year. Their stock was $160 a share a year ago and is now $18. (Source: 17 Apr. 2012 The Blaze)
EPA Curtails Burning Of Coal In U.S. -- Exports More Than Double In 5 Years
(25 Apr 2012) Coal exports topped 107 million tons worth almost $16 billion in 2011 ... more than double the export volume in 2006. The coal will be burned in other countries. (Source: 10 Apr. 2012 Cowboy Byte)
Germany: Our Green Energy Future
May 2, 2012 6:53 am Every year 600,000 households (2 million people) are getting their power switched off in Germany because they can’t afford the skyrocketing electric bills. At that rate the country (population 80 million) will become blacked-out like North Korea by 2050.
It’s one way of reducing carbon emissions – just catapult your population back to the Stone Age. Online German flagship daily Die Welt has an article on how skyrocketing electricity prices are making electricity unaffordable for a large number of Germans.
…
Over 10 years ago Germany enacted the Renewable Energy Feed-In Act (EEG) which requires power companies to pay small producers of renewable energy exorbitant rates for their green power. The power companies in turn simply pass the higher prices on to their customers. Electricity prices rose 10% in 2011 alone!
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