The uproar that surrounded the Solyndra Company, a California-based manufacturer of solar panels and other kinds of solar-powered technologies, has largely died off by now. During the height of the “scandal” last year, the President and his administration had to face a nation angry with the lack of oversight and forethought put into the process of loaning millions of taxpayer dollars to a company that would soon go belly-up. What could make a company that accepted $535 million dollars from the government to produce an exciting new technology go bankrupt in so short a time? It is certainly a treacherous path to the truth of the matter, particularly when trying to sift through the economic and political turmoil in its wake. In an attempt to do this, I will explain the best I can what I know of the matter.
Shortly after taking office, President Obama’s administration made government subsidies for “green” energy companies, like Solyndra, a priority. After much-publicized touting by the administration, including a visit by the President himself to the Solyndra manufacturing plant, the federal government agreed to loan Solyndra $535 million in taxpayer money. Likely, this would have caused no problems had the company not floundered shortly after. The firestorm that erupted after the company’s bankruptcy left the green industry reeling and the Obama administration with egg on their collective face. Republicans were quick to leap on the story, insinuating that it was all an orchestrated move of blatant cronyism – a case that has not been helped by Solyndra’s alleged ties to the administration’s higher-ups. Energy Secretary Steven Chu has come under a lot of fire by Republicans, and even many Democrats for his personal investment in and bumbling handling of the Solyndra situation.
When Solyndra closed its doors and laid off its 1,100 employees last year, the deal that had been held up as a proud example of green-government blew up in the American media. Republicans and Fox News were quick to point out the “grotesque cronyism” that could mean only an impeachment for Obama. Others, such as Rep. Newt Gingrich and Rep. Cliff Stearns, called for an even-more extreme position against the green energy industry itself. Stearns used his position as Energy subcommittee chairman to deride renewable energy and said that this incident proved “that green energy isn’t going to be the solution.”
Aside from all the legislative backstabbing and mumbo-jumbo, the Solndra scanal still is a disconcerting incident for Americans and the world. It means that there are still very big problems with the government subsidy program, and some of these problems may be rooted in intrinsic cronyism. This being said, Solyndra is the exception, not the rule. The government recently passed on $8 billion to nuclear plant development in the South and other solar companies like First Solar and SunPower are doing just fine with their loan money. Many have placed the blame on China, for giving their solar industry bigger subsidies. While it is true they gave more insubsidies, America actually holds a trade surplus with China in solar technologies – one of the very few areas that China actually buys more of our stuff than we do of theirs.
According to authorities in the marketplace, what really ruined Solyndra was just a simple change in the market that no one had really anticipated. Solyndra’s use of non-silicon technologies seemed smart and efficient: it was cheaper to make solar panels without silicon. Then, silicon prices tumbled, making all of Solyndra’s research and development next-to useless. Within months, the company was out of business. The result of bad economic forecasting.
So what are we, the American people, to take from this disaster of economic proportions? Certainly, our attitude should one of anger with our government for backdoor cronyism, one of disgust with politicians for trying to use this a leverage against a proven industry, and one of diligence towards green technology. Perhaps Jon Stewart said it right on his program The Daily Show: mentioning the ludicrous uproar that happened, Stewart said that we shouldn’t use this as a reason to discredit all green energy across the board, “But, if in, let’s say, 1936 you spoke about the growing importance of air travel in front of, I don’t know, the Hindenberg, you’d be right about the future of air travel — but you’d still be on f—-g fire!”
Sources:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/15/jon-stewart-obama-solyndra-scandal-video_n_965474.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/16/solyndra-scandal-emails-energy-department_n_1097701.html
