$3.85 a gallon in Lapeer

Tuesday, before the House Appropriations energy and water subcommittee, Steven Chu asked if his department is working to lower oil prices:

“No, the overall goal is to decrease our dependency on oil, to build and strengthen our economy,” Chu replied. “We think that if you consider all these energy policies, including energy efficiency, we think that we can go a long way to becoming less dependent on oil and [diversifying] our supply and we’ll help the American economy and the American consumers.”

No. They’re “investing” in green energy. Quick check to see how that green energy thing is doing :

Abound Solar, which received a $400 million federal loan guarantee to make solar panels, is laying off 70 percent of its workforce and delaying a new factory in Indiana, according to the Denver Post.

Obama bragged in 2010 that Abound Solar would create 1,500 permanent jobs. After the layoffs, the company will employ 120.

Solyndra, of course, which doesn’t need to be rehashed here.

Evergreen:

A Midland solar materials factory that was celebrated as an example on how to fuel the alternative energy industry in the state is suspending its operations and taking away about 40 jobs.

SpectraWatt

Amonix :

Hard on the heels of $118 million “stimulus” recipient Ener1 declaring bankruptcy comes news that another highly-touted “green energy success story” just laid off two-thirds of its workforce. From the Las Vegas Sun:

Just seven months after California-based solar power company Amonix Inc. opened its largest manufacturing plant, in North Las Vegas, the company’s contractor has laid off nearly two-thirds of its workforce.

Flextronics Industrial, the Singapore solar panel manufacturer that partnered with Amonix to staff the new $18 million, 214,000-square-foot plant, laid off about 200 of its 300-plus employees Tuesday.

Uni-Solar:

Energy Conversion Devices, Inc., a technology company based in Auburn Hills, Michigan filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection today.

The company makes thin laminates that convert sunlight to energy and “has manufacturing facilities in Auburn Hills and Greenville, Michigan, as well as sites in Mexico and Canada,” according to the Wall Street Journal.

The problem? No one is buying. And the government SUCKS at investing:

CBS News’s Sharyl Attkisson, the reporter who originally broke the Solyndra story, notes that 11 other failed clean energy companies besides Solyndra received approval for $6.5 billion in taxpayer monies. Beacon Power, Evergreen Solar, SpectraWatt, Eastern Energy, and Solyndra have all gone bankrupt. Others, such as Nevada Geothermal Power, a company that was personally touted by Sen. Harry Reid, is facing serious financial problems and warned of “multiple potential defaults” in its new SEC filings. Still, despite the fact that the company had already been struggling to “pay the bills,” Ms. Attkinson reports that Nevada Geothermal Power received $98.5 million in Department of Energy loan guarantees.

But, it’s not just us. It’s Germany too.

Germany once prided itself on being the “photovoltaic world champion,” doling out generous subsidies — totalling more than US$130-billion, according to research from Germany’s Ruhr University — to citizens to invest in solar energy. But now the German government is vowing to cut the subsidies sooner than planned, and to phase out support over the next five years. What went wrong?

According to Der Spiegel, even members of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s staff are now describing the policy as a massive money pit. Philipp Rösler, Germany’s Minister of Economics and Technology, has called the spiralling solar subsidies a “threat to the economy.”

Yep. And Chu and Obama’s energy policy is a threat to our economy.

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