MrRodgers
Posts: 10542
Joined: 7/30/2005 Status: offline
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Termyn8or FR Ahem. For one, the Arctic region is not part of the US so he, as a supposed Constitutional scholar, is too fucking stupid to realize that he does not have jurisdiction over the area. He might be able to forbid US oil companies from drilling there, not sure, but what does BP stand for ? BRITISH PETROLEUM. That is not USian nor even American. Best he can do is to forbid the importation of that oil into the US. And this golden boy of yours is so environmentally aware that while he gives away half a billion to a non-viable solar cell pipedream (Solyndra) allows those oil companies TOTAL exemption from environmental laws when it comes to fracking. And if you know anything about how soil works and about water down there and all that you know fracking is going to bite us in the ass. But as of January 20th he can start collecting his bribes for that. The great hero. Yeah right. T^T The truth about the entire program of which Solyndra was a small part. Yes, a small part. If you Termy wish to continue to just throw our nuggets of partisan swill...be my guest but first, the program was started by GW Bush. Then along come a stimulus package, $30 billion of which went to what's called high risk start-ups. Let us not forget either that start-ups mean actual new jobs. Not just brining back those laid-off and not just saving those jobs held at the time...,but new jobs. 30 companies got that $30 billion give or take and also, lending to high-risk startups was only a small portion of the program’s portfolio—some $30 billion doled out to 30 companies and projects. The loans fell into three broad categories: startup manufacturers like Solyndra and Fisker; established automakers like Ford, which took a $5.9 billion loan (10 times what your favorite pet co. got) in September 2009 to modernize its plants, and Nissan, which got $1.4 billion; (3 times Solyndra) and projects like solar and wind farms that would produce energy and sell their output to utilities. Far from the scandals that animated conservatives, most of these loans are doing quite well. They’re virtually all current, paying interest and principal every quarter. Indeed, the interest payments received so far outweigh the losses on the failed borrowers. And the gains for the U.S. power industry at large have been far greater. Tesla, another early borrower, in May 2013 repaid its entire $465 million loan nine years ahead of schedule. Ford, which borrowed 12 times more cash than Tesla did, began making $148 million quarterly interest and principal payments on its loan in September 2012. According to Ford’s most recent 10-K, by the end of 2014, it had paid back $1.5 billion in principal. It will continue to make those payments through 2022. (The interest rate Ford pays is about 2.3 percent.) Yes maybe Ford wasn't a start-up and didn't need it but..... ..... many of the loans that the Energy Department has made went to startups employing untested technologies. A good chunk of the money in the period from 2009 to 2011 supported giant, first-of-their kind, utility-scale solar and wind projects, like the 290-megawatt Agua Caliente project in Arizona, which reached full operation in 2014, or the 240-megawatt Antelope Valley Solar Ranch plant. They’re called utility-scale because they approach in size the type of fossil fuel–powered plants that utilities can rely on. And prior to 2009, nobody in the U.S or in the world, really, had attempted to build several of them at once. The loan program says it has made loans to 17 entities that are currently producing power—and hence generating revenue to pay back their loans. Meanwhile, as the industry has gained scale (thanks in part to the Energy Department–backed projects), the price of building such plants has fallen. And so the private sector has seized the initiative. Solar and wind are booming in the U.S., as utilities, private equity firms, banks, startups, and Fortune 500 companies are rushing to finance the construction of dozens of large-scale emissions-free power plants. According to the Solar Energy Industries Association, the U.S. utility-scale solar sector grew 38 percent in 2014. From nothing before the loan guarantees, utility-scale solar now accounts for about 4 gigawatts of generating capacity. It’s a genuine growth industry, financed largely by private funds. Oh yea...now it is, as I write, jumping on the bandwagon after govt. takes all of the initial risk. Oh but the govt. doesn't produce jobs or create businesses let alone wealth...no, of course not. SO where in the hell was the great risk-takers of the great and glorious capitalist marketplace ? With their chicken-shit, risk averse heads up their ass, hiding behind govt. risk...waiting to jump on the govt. bandwagon to then see if they can make some fucking money. By some studies, some 30 million people or more, are now working at tech companies having been created through entire industries, making Billion$ in PRIVATE profits...thanks to govt. taking the R & D and start-up risks that the capitalist is too lazy and greedy to underwrite. They instead go after consumer markets that already exist, buy up existing companies and lay off people, spend billion$ on buying their stock back and then borrow money from those cowardly, fraudulent, fucking bankers to pay dividends. Oh and Termy, I ask that you make up your very narrow mind, either the EPA over regulates or it...under regulates.
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You can be a murderous tyrant and the world will remember you fondly but fuck one horse and you will be a horse fucker for all eternity. Catherine the Great Under capitalism, man exploits man. Under communism, it's just the opposite. J K Galbraith
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