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Obama's Energy Cronies

Written By Nick Hodge

Posted March 3, 2012

We can’t forget about the other implications of $105+ oil.

Sure, it sends oil drillers and service companies higher. And most of our recent coverage has been dedicated to that end.

But it also heats up the search for and the attractiveness of alternatives.

Of course, not all alternatives are created equal…

We’ve seen what can happen when energy technologies are chosen based on cronyism, and not solely on their economic merits.

No less than 80% of the stimulus loans and grants given by the Department of Energy to alternative energy companies has gone to companies either run by or primarily owned by Obama’s financial backers — individuals who were bundlers, members of Obama’s National Finance Committee, or large donors to the Democratic Party.

That’s a large chunk: about $16.4 billion out of $20.5 billion in issued loans.

A CBS News report in January found that at least 12 companies that received billions in Federal assistance were now in financial trouble.

Five have already gone bankrupt: Beacon Power, Evergreen Solar, SpectraWatt, Eastern Energy, and Solyndra.

Last week, Abound Solar announced it was laying off 280 workers (70% of its staff) and delaying a new factory in Indiana. Abound got $400 million of your tax dollars.

That’s a far cry from July 2010, when Obama said Abound would use the money to “manufacture advanced solar panels at two new plants, creating more than 2,000 construction jobs and 1,500 permanent jobs” at plants in Indiana and Colorado.

But that’s what you get when you pick energy investments based on the Buddy System…

That’s not how we do things around here.

We know energy alternatives will be successful because of market factors: higher conventional energy prices, less easy-to get oil, a leapfrogging Third World, and efficiency.

We’ve delivered you numerous winners in the space, and there will be plenty more to come — not because it’s trendy, or green, or the right thing to do, or because the companies will help us get reelected…

But because we’ve evaluated the opportunities and find them to be good investments given current market conditions.

In other words, we invest in companies that are going to be successful no matter which political party its executives support.

That’s how it’s supposed to be.

Call it like you see it,

Nick Hodge
Editor, Energy and Capital


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