Ken Berwitz

The Green Scandal is huge.  And getting bigger by the day.

I thought Solyndra was probably the worst part of it -- until I came across Neil W. McCabe's article for Human Events about SunPower.

Read these excerpts and you'll see what I mean.  The bold print is mine:

SunPower: Twice As Bad As Solyndra, Twice As Bad For Obama

Congressman's son lobbied for failing solar panel company

by  Neil W. McCabe

How did a failing California solar company, buffeted by short sellers and shareholder lawsuits, receive a $1.2 billion federal loan guarantee for a photovoltaic electricity ranch project—three weeks after it announced it was building new manufacturing plant in Mexicali, Mexico, to build the panels for the project.
 
The company, SunPower (SPWR-NASDAQ), now carries $820 million in debt, an amount $20 million greater than its market capitalization.  If SunPower was a bank, the feds would shut it down.  Instead, it received a lifeline twice the size of the money sent down the Solyndra drain.
 
Two men with insight into the process are SunPower rooter Rep. George R. Miller III, (D.-Calif.), the senior Democrat on the House Education and Workforce Committee and the co-chairman of the Democratic Steering and Policy Committee, and his SunPower lobbyist son, George Miller IV.
 
According to the Department of Energy (DOE) website, the CVSR project will create 350 construction jobs during the two-year build and 15 permanent jobs—presumably those are the squeegee men for keeping the panels clean.

If $80 million per permanent job seems a little high, even for the current Obama administration, you are correct.  In addition to the 350 construction jobs and the 15 squeegee men, there will an as-yet-undetermined number of jobs created building the panels for the CVSR—in Mexicali, Mexico.
 
The good news for Mexican jobs seekers did not affect the DOE's loan guarantee to SunPower.  Hours before the DOE 1705 loan program expired at the end of Fiscal Year 2011 on Sept. 30, the $1.2 billion in loan guarantees was approved for the company.
 
The deal, made public April 28, was in effect a 60% buyout at $23.25, then a 60% premium over the stock's current trading price, which allowed insiders to get liquid.
 
SunPower CEO Werner is typical of the insiders.  On May 24 he exercised his right to purchase 428,343 shares at $3.30 per share, a $18 discount from the day’s trading range.  He sold 478,084 shares June 15, the day the Total Oil takeover closed, at $23.25 for proceeds of $11,115,453.
 
Although its stock has recovered from its all-time low Oct. 4 of $6.60 per share to trade between $8 and $9 per share, it has been a steep slide from its all-time high Dec. 3, 2007 of $133.  Then, the company was worth $13 billion.
 
Today, its market capitalization is $800 million, just short of its debt of $820 billion, according to the company's July filings for the second quarter.  

Is that dirty and corrupt enough for you?  If not, there's more.  A lot more.  Just use the link I provided above to read Mr. McCabe's entire article and see for yourself.

I said it at the beginning of this blog, and I'll say it again.  The Green Scandal is huge.  And getting bigger by the day.

Now:  When do Energy Secretary steven chu, and President Obama, get nailed for this massive pissing away of taxpayer money?  When do more than a very few venues within our supposedly neutral media start acting like neutral media? 

When do they stop being accomplices and report both the extent of this scandal and who the responsible parties are? 

Before or after President Obama's 2012 election campaign?