Protectzia, American style
While there may be a lot of Israelis who have benefited from green slush, the common thread among the companies is not that they have Israeli officers, directors or investors. It's that they are controlled by Obama 'bundlers' (people who raised $500,000 or more for the Obama campaign in 2008 and this year). An astounding 80% of the government money that went into the 'green' economy went to companies controlled by the President's direct supporters (Hat Tip: Wintery Knight).
It would take an entire book to analyze every single grant and government-backed loan doled out since Barack Obama became president. But an examination of grants and guaranteed loans offered by just one stimulus program run by the Department of Energy, for alternative-energy projects, is stunning. The so-called 1705 Loan Guarantee Program and the 1603 Grant Program channeled billions of dollars to all sorts of energy companies. The grants were earmarked for alternative-fuel and green-power projects, so it would not be a surprise to learn that those industries were led by liberals. Furthermore, these were highly competitive grant and loan programs—not usually a hallmark of cronyism. Often fewer than 10 percent of applicants were deemed worthy.
Nevertheless, a large proportion of the winners were companies with Obama-campaign connections. Indeed, at least 10 members of Obama’s finance committee and more than a dozen of his campaign bundlers were big winners in getting your money. At the same time, several politicians who supported Obama managed to strike gold by launching alternative-energy companies and obtaining grants. How much did they get? According to the Department of Energy’s own numbers ... a lot. In the 1705 government-backed-loan program, for example, $16.4 billion of the $20.5 billion in loans granted as of Sept. 15 went to companies either run by or primarily owned by Obama financial backers—individuals who were bundlers, members of Obama’s National Finance Committee, or large donors to the Democratic Party. The grant and guaranteed-loan recipients were early backers of Obama before he ran for president, people who continued to give to his campaigns and exclusively to the Democratic Party in the years leading up to 2008. Their political largesse is probably the best investment they ever made in alternative energy. It brought them returns many times over.
These government grants and loan guarantees not only provided access to taxpayer capital. They also served as a seal of approval from the federal government. Taxpayer money creates what investors call a “halo effect,” in which a young, unprofitable company is suddenly seen to have a glowing future. The plan is simple. Invest some money, secure taxpayer grants and loans, go public, and then cash out. In just one small example, a company called Amyris Biotechnologies received a $24 million DOE grant to build a pilot plant to use altered yeast to turn sugar into hydrocarbons. The investors included several Obama bundlers and fundraisers. With federal money in hand, Amyris went public with an IPO the following year, raising $85 million. Kleiner Perkins, a firm that boasts Obama financier John Doerr and former vice president Al Gore as partners, found its $16 million investment was now worth $69 million. It’s not clear how the other investors did. Amyris continues to lose money. Meanwhile, the $24 million grant created 40 jobs, according to the government website recovery.gov.
Read the whole thing. It's astounding. By the way, the book has already been written by the article's author, Peter Schweizer. It's called Throw Them All Out. Yes, there's Vitamin P in America too.....One might think that the Department of Energy’s Loan Program Office, which has doled out billions in taxpayer-guaranteed loans, would be directed by a dedicated scientist or engineer. Or perhaps a civil servant with considerable financial knowledge. Instead, the department’s loan and grant programs are run by partisans who were responsible for raising money during the Obama campaign from the same people who later came to seek government loans and grants. Steve Spinner, who served on the Obama campaign’s National Finance Committee and was a bundler himself, was the campaign’s “liaison to Silicon Valley.” His responsibilities included fundraising, recruiting more bundlers, and managing Obama’s relationship with a cadre of very wealthy donors. After the 2008 campaign, Spinner joined the Department of Energy as the “chief strategic operations officer” for the loan programs. A lot of the money he helped hand out went to that same cadre of wealthy Silicon Valley campaign donors. He also sat on the White House Business Council, which is made up of Obama-supporting corporate executives.
Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, UN Climate Change Conference
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:04 PM
3 Comments:
The level of corruption in the Obama Administration makes the Nixon Administration look like Boy Scouts. Plus Nixon actually did a lot of good things for America, which can't be said of The Empty Chair.
I really don't know who I'm more outraged at, Obama or the totally corrupt MSM, who have been and are aiding and abetting the cover-up of all this because Obama is a Democrat.
1. The Green Slush technologies cannot replace the U.S. energy demand. After their touted "doubling!", they are achieving about 3% of demand. So if existing supplies are shut down, the U.S. will have rationing of electricity, under control of the Green Dictators.
2. A bunch of the Green Slush beneficiaries have not gone bankrupt. I only wish they would so they will not ruin America. They have been saved by the Green Slush.
3. The Navajo Nation is throwing down with the other half of this equation, the EPA/Dept of Interior, etc. The Obama EPA is straining at the bit because the poverty stricken Navajos mine coal and sell it to 2 power plants in the 4 corners area. The mines and the power plants have crossed every T and dotted every I, meeting air quality standards. So the EPA has been stymmied in shutting down this competition to the inadequate Green Slush enterprises you describe in this post. If Obama wins this election, the EPA has in the drawer regulations so stringent that almost all competing existing power generation industries will be closed down. Green technologists refusing to cooperate with the inadequate Green Slush dictatorship or to let your reputation be used(too late now, I guess) with this corrupt Green Slush dictatorship would be the thing to do. Don't take their money and object if your company's management does.
BTW, what is Protectzia?
If it's what I'm thinking, then the slogan is:
Refuse Protectzia!!!
(I know top level scientists and engineers in the U.S. who literally refused to participate when they were asked to go after earmarks, budget this and that... they literally found other private sector investors and clients because they said this kind of graft (Protectzia?) would ruin the best economic system available. Many people from around the world have participated and made a good life from the U.S. sponsored system. The Green Slush will collapse it and hunger and street wars over scarce necessities will expand worldwide. It's already starting. Work to vote them out while we still can.)
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