Loan guarantees for clean energy: a success story, not a scandal

[FBaggins]

There's a lively debate under way about the Department of Energy's loan guarantees to American companies that are developing advanced renewable energy technologies. Unfortunately, many opponents are generating heat but are not properly representing the facts around the DOE program's strong success.

These critics keep citing Solyndra, a solar panel manufacturer that went bankrupt because of intense foreign competition. But the projects representing about 98 percent of the program's funding have been successful, especially solar power plants that aren't vulnerable to the volatile global economy. Overall, the program has spurred $40 billion of investments in energy projects over the last five years, while supporting more than 60,000 American jobs.

An independent program review headed by Herbert Allison, a former Wall Street financier, reported that the loan portfolio is performing well, with the great majority of the companies on track to repay their loans on schedule along with $8 billion in interest.

Reaching similar conclusions, the news service Bloomberg Government, found that 87 percent of the program's loans are low-risk. Meanwhile, the news site CleanTechnia observed that, with only 1.4 percent of its investments in "losers," the program has a far better record than the private venture capital markets.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/07/20/2903965/loan-guarantees-for-clean-energy.html

[Indydem]

1. Let me break it down for you.

Here is why people are upset:

"Department of Energy's loan guarantees" vs "private venture capital markets"

OR

Taxpayer money vs private money

When schools are closing, teachers are being laid off, firefighter pensions are being slashed, and infrastructure never got the stimulus it was promised, people have a real problem with the government giving loans to private businesses that then proceed to go bankrupt.

You can make an argument for clean energy and it's benefits to our economy, but giving out loans on the backs of taxpayers was, IMHO, not the right move. It was all too easy to know a few would fail and be turned into political footballs.