Al lupo, al lupo

Planned economy, USA version

These guys come straight from USSR planned economy mindset:

The president’s vision for Solyndra was backed by taxpayer guarantees to the tune of $535 million. TheNew York Times reports that $527 million of the guaranteed loan has already been spent. Solyndra is now filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. So much for propelling our economy. I was particularly struck by a quotation in the New York Times from a Department of Energy bureaucrat justifying the Solyndra loans:

“The project that we supported succeeded,” insisted Damien LaVera, a spokesman for the Department of Energy.

“The facility was producing the product it said it would produce, and consumers were buying the product,” he said. “The company struggled because the market has changed dramatically.”

The project “succeeded?” As Saturday Night Live’s Seth Meyers might say, “Really!?!”

Solar-industry analyst Peter Lynch explained to the Associated Press the chief problem faced by government-funded Solyndra:

“You make something in a factory and it costs $6, you sell it for $3, but you really, really need to sell it for $1.50 to be competitive,” Lynch said of Solyndra. “It was an insane business model. The numbers just don’t work, and they never did.”

For more background, see my article, “It’s Alive: Alternative energy subsidies make their biggest comeback since Jimmy Carter,” detailing the sad failed history of government energy RD&D subsidies.

It’s scary.