That’s odd – I thought there was a sham solar company in the US too. There must be different trademark laws overseas. Gizmodo(3/19/13) reports: “The Shams Power Company opened their Shams 1 concentrated solar power station this week in Abu Dhabi. The station generates 100 MW and can power 20,000 homes while reducing CO2 emissions by 175,000 tons per year.”
The President can be as proud of “our” increase in oil and gas production as he wants. But if he or any of his handlers take credit for any of it, they are flat out lying. Politico (3/19/13) reports: “White House energy adviser Heather Zichal drew a line in the sand this morning on the president’s Energy Security Trust proposal, stressing that the administration would not accept expanded drilling as part of the plan. “No. ANWR is off the table. Our existing OCS plan and nothing else,” Zichal told reporters, referring to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska, which has long been a non-starter for Democrats. While Zichal’s comments are no surprise, they underscore the difficulty the administration’s Energy Security Trust proposal faces in Congress. The plan, which would funnel royalties from existing oil and gas production into research and development, has bipartisan support.”
Are people suggesting that competition and price signals would be better for business (and better for you)? When will these greedy capitalists just learn to take a handout? Heritage (3/19/13) reports: “More than $51 billion in unused loan guarantee authority and $4.4 billion in unused credit subsidies (to cover the government’s long-term cost of the loan) remain available under the DOE’s Loan Guarantee Program (1703) and Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing (ATVM) loan program… Association with the failed solar companies and troubled car manufacturers has diminished the program’s public perception. That negative “political environment” has made companies less likely to apply for the loan guarantees…”
There’s a new sheriff in town…
The Chinese know this whole thing is a sham. It’s a terrible investment, and we should just leave it to the American taxpayer to pick up the tab. WSJ (3/18/13) reports: “Chinese auto makers have pulled back from talks to buy Fisker Automotive Inc. over a disagreement on whether to revive a loan agreement with the U.S., leaving the Anaheim, Calif., company’s future uncertain ahead of an April loan payment… Fisker management had proposed to the Chinese that as part of any sale it tap the remaining portion of a $529 million U.S. loan, a move that would commit a new owner to building Fisker cars at a former General Motors Co. GM +0.21% auto factory in Delaware, a person familiar with the situation said on Monday…The Delaware plant is big, old and expensive and the Chinese balked at the U.S. loan because they don’t want to be compelled to build cars there, another person said.”
This would’ve been a fun day in 8th grade science class. Slate (3/19/13) reports: “The treatment plant produces a lot of solid organic waste from the 44 million gallons of wastewater it processes daily. There’s an anaerobic digester on site to consume some of that waste so IEUA doesn’t have to pay to landfill everything it pulls out of the sewage, but the bacteria in the digester produce another kind of waste: methane, a potent greenhouse gas. IEUA is under the authority of the South Coast Air Quality Management District, one of the strictest such agencies in the country. Plant managers knew that beginning in November, 2012, it would be also under California’s statewide emissions trading program, forcing it, for the first time, to pay for the carbon dioxide emissions from the electricity it gets from the grid.”