DOE Plans On Wasting Another $4 Billion On Renewable Project Loans

18 Apr, 2014 by William Teach

Print this article Font size -16+

Providing loans for renewable/alternative energy programs would, in a sane world, be a good idea. Unfortunately, as we saw with the previous loans, they were politically motivated and were wasteful

(Reuters) The U.S. Energy Department on Wednesday unveiled a plan for up to $4 billion in loan aid for renewable energy companies to help rejuvenate a program that faced harsh political attacks over past failures of federally subsidized projects.

The Obama administration’s draft plan would provide loan guarantees for innovative projects that limit or avoid greenhouse gas emissions.

It will specifically focus on advanced electric grid technology and storage, biofuels for conventional vehicles, energy from waste products and energy efficiency.

Again, research and development into these types of programs should be a good thing, regardless of the reason behind it. The endpoint would help all Americans.

“We’re back in business,” Peter Davidson, executive director of the department’s loan programs office, told Reuters. “We really want to go back to … doing very valuable work for our economy going forward.”

How’d their business work last time? 33 companies backed by the DOE failed, and that list was just through 2012, accounting for at least $10 billion. Many, like Solyndra, left vast environmental messes. And there have been more failures since, such as Fisker. The jobs created and the power supplied have been low, and, in many cases, the lands have been despoiled.

And 80% of the loans went to Obama backers.

These programs might be worthwhile if previous efforts didn’t show that the loans were quite often worthless, wasteful, and politically motivated. And, if the programs are so darned great, the private sector would be investing their own money heavily, hoping to make some serious money. Kinda says something when the private sector wants little to nothing to do with these programs, at least using their own money.

Crossed at Pirate’s Cove. Follow me on Twitter @WilliamTeach.