Trick and Treat: Energy Loans under Review, as Hallowe’en Looms
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) …The fact that the US government doubled-down, by allegedly subordinating the loan to investments by a pair of hedge funds, during a Solyndra financial reorganization, is going to cost Energy Secretary a headache when he heads to a November 17th hearing on Capitol Hioll, and possibly more.
But House Republicans and the general media missed a lot of signals themselves, that something was awry in clean energy financing and funding, way back in 2009.
In 2009, we reported:
“$32.9 billion in total funding announced, including grants and loan guarantees. Impressive! But just $17.44 billion for the private sector, the street – nearly half of that in loan guarantees rather than outright funding. The rest of it went to government (although, some went in state block grants that may, in turn, have some portion that finds its way to the street; and some of that went to the utility sector, in which there are private companies). Seems to me that government announcing a grant to government is double-counting. Call me stupid – isn’t that just an allocation?”
…“Electric and “clean” vehicle technology received $2.9 billion — that’s $500 million more than the entire support for the solar, biofuels, wind, hydro, and geothermal investments which are supposed to provide the renewable molecules and electrons to power said vehicles.”
…We noted that, somehow, the coal industry had received more funding than biofuels and biomass put together – this, in a clean energy financing round:
“Of the $32 billion, $792 million has gone directly to biofuels or biomass — 2.4 percent. That’s 29 percent less than went to coal – which I thought was the energy we were supposed to be transitioning away from, rather than investing in.” READ MORE and MORE (The Hill/E2Wire)
