Stick It Where The Sun Don't Shine

The EPA has declared war on coal power plants. obama has stymied drilling on federal land and has shut down the Keystone pipeline. To replace these energy sources the sunshiner-in-chief has placed a large number of bets -- using taxpayer money, of course -- on solar energy. How's that working out, you ask?

We all know the story of Solyndra.

The ongoing congressional investigation into a failed California solar panel maker that garnered more than a half-billion dollars in federal loans from the Obama administration could lead to criminal indictments...

Well, Solyndra may just be the tip of the iceberg. Despite billions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies, another solar energy firm has gone down the drain.

... law firms are lining up to get a piece of the action after a class action lawsuit was filed against federally subsidized First Solar, Inc., allegedly because the company failed to disclose the massive costs it was incurring due to defects in its solar panels, leading investors to believe the company’s stock was worth more than its actual value.

First Solar has received enormous financial backing from taxpayers.

• The Department of Energy provided a $646 million loan guarantee for the Antelope Valley (Calif.) Solar Ranch 1 project
• The Department of Energy also partially guaranteed $1.46 billion in borrowing for its Desert Sunlight Solar Farm west of Blythe, Calif.
• DOE loans of $967 million covered First Solar’s Agua Caliente Solar project in Yuma County, Ariz.
• Its Topaz Solar farm, which Warren Buffett just bought for about $1.9 billion, also qualifies for a federal grant (like the others) that pays a 30 percent rebate on construction costs.
• The U.S. Export-Import Bank backed $455.7 million in loans to First Solar for projects in Canada.
• The facilities also reap job training, state and local incentives, in addition to enjoying mandates that force utilities to buy their renewable power.

The Tempe, Ariz.-based manufacturer also disclosed in its annual report on February 29 that the Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating it for violations of Regulation Fair Disclosure.

Unfortunately for those of us who pay taxes, First Solar isn't alone.

Evergreen Solar is asking a bankruptcy judge for permission to walk away from its former plant in Devens.

The company, which received tens of millions in state aid before shuttering its facilities last year and moving its manufacturing operations to China, filed the notice in federal bankruptcy court in Delaware on Monday.

Evergreen received more than $20 million in grants and $11 million in tax and lease initiatives from Massachusetts. That doesn't include other tax benefits and millions in upgrades to roads and utilities around the plant.

A spokesman for Massachusetts Development declined to discuss what will happen next with the plant, which cost some $450 million to build just five years ago. The development authority was one of the Massachusetts state agencies that pitched in to get Evergreen Solar going.

Evergreen Solar was one of several green-technology enterprises that filed for bankruptcy in recent years, a wave of failures that wiped out billions of dollars worth of public and private investment.

The common theme among all these failures, of course, is the obama administration stubbornly clinging to the idea that solar is the current and future answer to this country's energy needs. I've got nothing against solar, or any other form of clean energy, as long as it can stand on its own and be economically sustainable without massive and ongoing taxpayer subsidies extortion.

That's called the free market...