Don Cardon, the CEO of the Arizona Commerce Authority, recently lectured Rep. Ben Quayle that conservatives should wise up and drop their objections to government picking winners and losers in economic development.
Cardon is Arizona's picker-in-chief, so his outlook isn't that surprising. He and his fellow deal closers have been particularly active in recruiting solar firms to our area. Before they go much further, they should make a careful case study of Solyndra.
You've probably heard of Solyndra, a California-based manufacturer of solar panels that was Washington's darling two years ago. It was innovative, it was green, it was a lock to succeed. In addition to the basket of subsidies and tax credits available to all solar businesses and their customers, Solyndra was awarded loan guarantees exceeding $500 million by the U.S. Department of Energy.
Tulsa oilman George Kaiser, a major Solyndra investor, just happens to be a key Obama fundraiser. Some see a link here, but Kaiser adamantly denies that political influence was used to obtain the loan guarantees. Whatever.
President Obama visited the firm in May 2010 to tout it as an example of his green jobs agenda. He wanted those uninformed skeptics out there to know that "the promise of green energy isn't just an article of faith. It's not just some abstract possibility... The future is now."
But Solyndra's future soon met the concrete wall of economic reality. By the end of last year, Energy Department officials were informed that Solyndra was in financial trouble, but they pooh-poohed it and offered additional help. Energy Secretary Steven Chu in May declared there was little chance of default. Now the company is shuttered and 1,100 green energy workers are unemployed.
Fortunately for Kaiser and the other owners, the Energy Department had restructured the deal so that private investors will get paid in bankruptcy proceedings before the guaranteed loans. Taxpayers are unlikely to ever see their money again. Unlike the GM bondholders, who were stripped of their legal rights to recovery, Solyndra's investors were granted additional rights in this bankruptcy. It's nice to have friends in high places.
But the Solyndra experience in many ways is typical. It is one of three major solar manufacturers that have gone bust this year alone. The Obama administration has put down tens of billions of our dollars in bets to create jobs in the solar industry. Many of those companies aren't looking so good now. It is unlikely that the 60,000 promised jobs will materialize and those that do will cost several hundred thousand dollars each.
Why do government planners make such lousy venture capitalists? The short answer is that they invest for mixed political reasons rather than the hard economics favored by investors spending their own money.
In the Solyndra case, the White House tried to rush the application review process so that Vice President Biden could announce the loan guarantees at the gala ground-breaking ceremony. The reason a solar company was selected in the first place was to advance a policy agenda. And then, when trouble loomed, the government moved to assure that the taxpayers would take the hit. That's not normal investor behavior.
There's a reason private investors are wary of solar businesses while government plunges ahead. Unsubsidized solar energy still costs almost three times as much to produce as energy from conventional sources. Unfortunately, you can't make a process more efficient by subsidizing it. In fact, protection from competition probably has the opposite effect.
Politicians love targeting specific enterprises for subsidies. They get lots of credit. They get ground-breaking ceremonies, newspaper headlines and awards dinners. What they don't get is economic growth. Taking taxes from existing firms to entice new entrants isn't a winning strategy.
Recent studies have confirmed that growth comes from low, broad-based taxes and a business-friendly regulatory and litigation environment that gives all competitors an equal chance at success. Rep. Quayle should ignore Cardon's gratuitous advice.
• East Valley resident Tom Patterson (pattersontomc@cox.net) is a retired physician and former state senator
Rich posted at 8:42 am on Sat, Sep 17, 2011.
The government isn't good at venture capital? Knock me over with a feather. At this point the government isn't good at much of anything. They're even falling down on the old standbys of guarding the shore and delivering the mail. The idea of them getting involved in healthcare at this point seems like a recipe for negligent homicide. Government needs to cut back, get uninvolved in things and give them a chance.All tax credits and guaranteed loans produce is failure and stagnation. Let the next advance in solar power come from a guy with his arm in a sling who fell off his roof installing the prototype. That's the way America should work. And would if the government would just stop sitting on it.
samkat posted at 7:09 pm on Sat, Sep 17, 2011.
"In the Solyndra case, the White House tried to rush the application review process so that Vice President Biden could announce the loan guarantees at the gala ground-breaking ceremony. The reason a solar company was selected in the first place was to advance a policy agenda. And then, when trouble loomed, the government moved to assure that the taxpayers would take the hit."
In this case, it was clearly the White House that created the mess rather than the Department of Energy which recommended to not award the contract.
davidflucier posted at 7:25 am on Sun, Sep 18, 2011.
It's a good thing that the US didn't take the same attitude when it came to developing the electric industry, the railroads, the telephone system, the interstate highway system, the clean water system, agriculture, dams and waterways, and the airline industry, etc, etc..
If you don't innovate and attempt to develop something new, progress comes to a halt. None of this comes without risk.
To expect a risk free environment is as foolish as it is short sighted.
"All wars are going badly until they are won."
NothingButTheTruth posted at 8:14 pm on Mon, Sep 19, 2011.
So Obozo is both an idiot and crooked? We already knew that. After all, he was a community organizer instantly promoted to US Senator and then boosted into the white house for the same purposes they are all place there to do. If you don't know what that is, you haven't been paying attention, or your name's davidlucifer.
sockratties posted at 9:28 am on Tue, Sep 20, 2011.
Energy Department spokesman Dan Leistikow said Solyndra was a once promising company that had increased sales revenue by 2,000 percent in the past three years. The $535 million loan guarantee was sought by both the Bush and Obama administrations, he said, and private investors also put more than $1 billion into Solyndra. Since 2008, Solyndra:
• Spent $1.3 million on lobbying activities, including paying 5 different firms over $800,000 to lobby on its behalf.
• Relied heavily on The Revolving Door - 17 lobbyists who have worked on its behalf are connected to over 30 different offices or Members of Congress.
• Lobbied on 18 bills, ranging from the Department of Defense Appropriations Act of 2012 to the Energy and Tax Extenders Act of 2008.
• Lobbied on issues focused on Budget/Appropriations, Defense, Energy/Nuclear, Taxation/Internal Revenue Code, and in particular issues related to Department of Energy loan programs.
This bankruptcy is also related to both the lack of demand and Chinese competition. People aren’t buying a lot of solar panels when they don’t have jobs and don’t spend a lot of money making a foreclosed house greener. Add in the fact that Chinese solar panels are less than 1/2 the price of the ones Solyndra could make and you have a prescription for failure.
VofReason posted at 1:00 pm on Tue, Sep 20, 2011.
Can we get rid of Bydler and give Rich his own column. Too funny.
Slabside posted at 5:49 pm on Tue, Sep 20, 2011.
Beydler could be replaced by a circus monkey.
A_Rose_By_Any_Other_Name posted at 6:25 pm on Tue, Sep 20, 2011.
davidlucifer, no one can deny the need for innovation, but to allow a blithering idiot like Obozo to spend countless trillions of borrowed money is an exercise in insanity. I doubt Obozo has enough sense even to wash his hands after using the restroom. Only a socialist cretin like Obozo would give Obozo a pass on this newest fiasco.