Solar
Trust of America, which listed assets between $1 to $10 million and liabilities
between $10 and $50 million, was unable to meet the Department of Energy loan
guarantee deadline. The $2.1 billion loan guarantee was “the largest amount
ever offered to a solar project.” (The Washington Examiner)
“Despite
the posturing and finger pointing, the American solar energy industry is alive
and well.” He continued, “One company’s bankruptcy [Solyndra’s] has cast doubt
on the credibility of a government program that is otherwise being administered
with incredible efficiency,” said Uwe Schmidt, chairman and CEO of Solar Trust,
in an op-ed in the Huffington Post.
Spiegel
Online reported that even Q-Cells, the biggest solar cell manufacturer in
Germany and the world has filed for bankruptcy on Tuesday, April 3, 2012, with
a record loss of $1.1 billion in 2011. In Bitterfeld-Wolfen, 2,200 workers have
lost their jobs. Q-Cell’s share price was 9 cents.
Q-Cell
blamed competition from China, management issues, and solar energy subsidies.
When the government subsidies dried up, Q-Cell was not able to compete in a
real market as their product was expensive to make. Production prices have
fallen in China by 30 to 40 percent, much faster than other companies could
scale down their costs, especially when relying on government subsidies.
“Solar
subsidies had been a highly effective political means of promoting the
environmentally friendly technology.” (Stefan Schultz)
Scheuten
Solar from Freiburg declared bankruptcy in March 2012. Solarhybrid and Odersun
from Frankfurt-an-der Oder filed the same month. Berlin-based Solon and
Erlangen-based Solar Millennium filed for bankruptcy in December 2011.
The
reality is that there is no cheaper substitute right now for fossil fuels as a
source of energy, no matter how the administration and its proponents spin it. Solar
power is expensive, windmills are expensive, noisy, and unsightly, hydropower
does not provide enough energy for our large economy, and nuclear power
requires more plants to be built. Two reactors are in the works in Georgia.
Using
crops to produce bio-fuels has caused a shortage of key grains such as corn in
many countries and caused the price of food to spike. “Energy prices affect the
production of fertilizers as well as costs related to food distribution and
farm machinery use.” Grain futures spiked when the U.S. government reported
that grain stocks were lower than estimated, and soybean and wheat plantings
fell. (Reuters)
According
to the Heritage Foundation, a Senate bill, rejected 51-47, and encouraged by
President Obama, “attempted to impose higher taxes on the oil industry as
punishment for their profits.”
Instead
of easing regulations and allowing for domestic drilling, liberals stage votes
to punish the evil oil companies at a time when average oil prices in the
country passed the $4 mark and the crude oil is $105 per barrel. No mention is
made of the fact that oil prices are quoted in dollars and that crude supplies
are getting short. A currently weak dollar causes a higher price for crude.
Further complicating the problem, “High crude oil prices have fueled the upward
pressure on inflation since the start of the year.” (Reuters)
David
Kreutzer, a Heritage expert, describes the manufacturing tax credits that
disadvantage the oil and gas industry:
“The
unfair tax break that makes up nearly half of what Obama calls ‘subsidies’ is
the manufacturing tax credit. All manufacturers except the oil and gas industry
get to deduct 9 percent of their revenues before calculating their tax bills…
Though oil and gas producers get the deduction, they are singled out for a
lower 6 percent deduction. The oil and gas industry gets a deduction that is
only two-thirds as generous for all other manufacturers…yet the deduction is
called a subsidy to oil and gas. The President’s proposal does not eliminate
the deduction for any other industry.”
The
crony capitalist green alternative energy has not worked so far, it has sunk
billions of taxpayer dollars at a time when we can ill-afford it. Obama’s FY
2013 budget contains more billions to fund the Department of Energy research
that is not commercially viable. (Nick Loris)
As
we are witnessing a very slow and painful economic recovery at an average rate
of 2.4 percent economic growth, at least one percent below of what the period
1947-2007 has experienced, our government is pursuing alternative energy
sources at all costs, hampering economic growth and real job creation while
pushing non-existent green jobs.
As
liberals keep saying, “we are not paying our fair share,” the U.S. corporate
tax rate of 39.2 percent is now the largest in the world as of April 1, 2012.
The average tax rate for other developed nations is 25 percent. (Mike
Brownfield, Heritage Foundation)
It
would be nice if our government would stop spending so much money borrowed from
China, and multi-national corporations like GE would pay some taxes instead of
filing 57,000-page tax return to shelter them from paying. Was it not Congress
that passed legislation enabling large corporations to move their headquarters,
manufacturing, jobs, and investment to other countries?
Nobody
stops liberals, who love to capture sound bites about “paying a fair share,”
from writing a large check to the IRS simply because they are so rich and “we
must spread the wealth to the poor.” They can start by giving the rest of us an
example of the “communist generosity” they so admire and advocate.
In
the meantime, I hope liberals of all stripes stop the alternative energy
talking points and start drilling domestically for oil. They cannot put
windmills on a car and cannot power electric cars without electricity produced
cheaply by the coal industry.
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