Son of Solyndra

If you thought that the Solyndra rat hole was the ultimate in gross government waste …  think again. Apparently, Obama and his gang of crony capitalists have even outdone this previous $527 million dollar squandering of taxpayer money with their newest bird rotisserie in the Mojave Desert, the Ivanpah Project. Actually this time it is a $540 million government grant request that is to help pay down a $1.6 billion government loan guarantee to build this ill-planned, ill-engineered, and ill-financed environmental monstrosity … see my previous blogs on this subject: The Price of Progress and The Birds, This entire solar project cost $2.2 billion with roughly $600 million coming from Google,  NRG Energy and the sale of energy futures … for more of these sordid details, see: Powerline Blog Story.

After the multiple planning, engineering, environmental and financing screw-ups that the Powerline blog deftly outlines and with another behemoth bankruptcy looming on the horizon, there is one matter that still sticks in my craw. If you remember the Solyndra fiasco, it was full of private self-dealing and poor government oversight. And, as I recall, the private investors stepped ahead of our government’s loan guarantees in the bankruptcy proceedings … which is not the way it is supposed to happen … see: Washington Post Story. This new Ivanpah grant request from our feds has that same smell of self dealing as Solyndra. Will any of this money go the project's owners, Google and NRG Energy, or will it be used solely to reduce our government’s loan guarantee (equivalent to taking from one government pocket and putting it in another)? Knowing how the current bunch of slimy Solons in Washington operate, my odds-on bet is on the former option.

But before I go, guess who was up to his oily neck in the Solyndra scandal? Why it was our new Ebola czar, Ron Klain ... see: PJ Media Story. Nothing really surprises me from this Chicago mob any more ...

Afterward: See also: Solyndra Times Three.