The Conservative Cave
Current Events => Breaking News => Topic started by: NHSparky on November 02, 2011, 11:24:54 AM
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Jobs Panel Member Whose Solar Firm Won Loan Guarantees Raises 'Conflict of Interest' Concerns
(http://a57.foxnews.com/static/managed/img/Politics/396/223/desert_sunlight.jpg)
By Judson Berger
Published November 01, 2011
FoxNews.com
(excerpt)
A clean-energy firm led by a member of President Obama's jobs council has a stake in projects that have reaped nearly $2 billion in loan guarantees from Washington, a case that has raised conflict-of-interest concerns as the same jobs council pushes for more "government-backed" investment in renewable energy.
The company, NextEra Energy, secured a loan guarantee in August for a solar project in California. An affiliate has taken over another California project that won a separate guarantee in September. The firm is no lightweight -- NextEra Energy Resources, the subsidiary working on both solar projects, is the biggest producer of wind and solar energy on the continent.
But the company also enjoys a connection to the Obama administration -- company Chairman and CEO Lewis Hay sits on the president's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, which last month issued a report calling, among other things, for a new federal financing program to attract private investment for clean energy projects via loan guarantees and other tools.
To the backdrop of the uproar in Washington over the $535 million loan guarantee to now-bankrupt solar firm Solyndra and a $43 million guarantee to another firm called Beacon Power Corporation also filing for bankruptcy, some are raising concerns about the role of members like Hay on the jobs council.
Unlike Solyndra, NextEra is turning a profit. Its second-quarter report showed net earnings of $580 million, better than in the second quarter of 2010. Third-quarter earnings for the company, which is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, will be announced Friday. The concern with NextEra centers more on Hay's work on the jobs council than the loan itself.
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Disclosure: I work for NextEra. This should be interesting.
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So in light of the Solyndra scandel and now this new story of apparent croonyism within the solar industry and the current administration, can we expect the DUmmies to begin ranting against Big Sun just as they do against Big Oil?
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So in light of the Solyndra scandel and now this new story of apparent croonyism within the solar industry and the current administration, can we expect the DUmmies to begin ranting against Big Sun just as they do against Big Oil?
I'm quite sure the silence will be deafening.
Had this been the Bush admin.....................
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I'm quite sure the silence will be deafening.
Had this been the Bush admin.....................
You mean like Cheney and Halliburton?
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Ugh. Can I start yelling "No taxes for energy!!!!!" Yet?
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Ugh. Can I start yelling "No taxes for energy!!!!!" Yet?
Don't say that, you might give Obama ideas for new taxes. How about a tax based on the amount of sunshine that is available each day? Of course on rainy days we'll have a tax for the water that Obama is giving us.