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View Full Version : CronyCapitalism: $737 Mil Green Jobs Loan Given to Pelosi's Bro-in -Law


Dusty
09-29-2011, 13:45
http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/crony-capitalism-737-million-green-jobs-loan-given-nancy-pelosis-brother-law_594593.html


Despite the growing Solyndra scandal, yesterday the Department of Energy approved $1 billion in new loans to green energy companies -- including a $737 million loan guarantee to a company known as SolarReserve:

SolarReserve LLC, a closely held renewable energy developer, received a $737 million U.S. Energy Department loan guarantee to build a solar-thermal project in Nevada.

The 110-megawatt Crescent Dunes project, near Tonopah, Nevada, will use the sun’s heat to create steam that drives a turbine, the agency said today in a e-mailed statement. SolarReserve is based in Santa Monica, California.

On SolarReserve's website is a list of "investment partners," including the "PCG Clean Energy & Technology Fund (East) LLC." As blogger American Glob quickly discovered, PCG's number two is none other than "Ronald Pelosi, a San Francisco political insider and financial industry polymath who happens to be the brother-in-law of Nancy Pelosi, the Minority Leader of the United States House of Representatives."

But wait... there's more! One of SolarReserve's other investment partners is Argonaut Private Equity:



Steve Mitchell and Argonaut Private Equity might have a chance to recoup some of their losses in the Solyndra debacle now that the Department of Energy has given a $737 million dollar loan guarantee to a company backed by Argonaut that also lists Mitchell among its board of directors.

Mitchell served on the Solyndra LLC Board of Directors. He also serves as Managing Director for Argonaut Private Equity, a company that invested in Solyndra through the LLCs parent company. After Solyndra declared bankruptcy, two Democratic members of the U.S. House asked that Mitchell testify about Solyndra. Though he has not appeared before Congress, he has "been asked to provide documents to Congress" pertaining to Solyndra.

And for good measure, it's also noteworthy that Obama is about to hold a big money fundraiser at the home of Tom Carnahan in St. Louis:


Carnahan, a member of the prominent Missouri Democratic family, has been tapped by the Obama campaign as its chief Missouri fundraiser. He is chairman of the board of Wind Capital Group, a wind energy company that makes it corporate headquarters in St. Louis. He formerly was president and CEO of the company.

Last year, Wind Capital's Lost Creek Farm facility in northwest Missouri received a $107 million tax credit from the Treasury Department, among many such wind operations receiving support from from stimulus funds.

Tom Carnahan is the son of former Missouri governor Mel Carnahan and former U.S. senator Jean Carnahan. He's also the brother of current Missouri secretary of state, Robin Carnahan.

It's increasingly hard to tell the government's green jobs subsidies apart from the Democrats' friends and family rewards program.

GratefulCitizen
10-01-2011, 18:41
The Federal Financing Bank seems like a way to avoid having the congress approve appropriations (or borrow against the credit of the United States).
Didn't realize the congress could delegate power in such a manner.

http://pajamasmedia.com/tatler/2011/09/30/obama-admin-uses-secret-bank-to-pour-cash-into-green-pet-projects/
http://wallstreetpit.com/84390-you-are-not-watching-us-we-are-watching-you

Loaning money at arbitrarily low interest rates isn't that much different from giving away money.
Smoke and mirrors.

Paslode
10-01-2011, 19:32
The Federal Financing Bank seems like a way to avoid having the congress approve appropriations (or borrow against the credit of the United States).
Didn't realize the congress could delegate power in such a manner.

http://pajamasmedia.com/tatler/2011/09/30/obama-admin-uses-secret-bank-to-pour-cash-into-green-pet-projects/
http://wallstreetpit.com/84390-you-are-not-watching-us-we-are-watching-you

Loaning money at arbitrarily low interest rates isn't that much different from giving away money.
Smoke and mirrors.

Except for the name, this doesn't sound much different than the US Export/Import Bank.

http://professionalsoldiers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=24817&highlight=Federal+Financing+Bank

BOfH
10-27-2011, 09:49
I'm sure there is some nepotism in this one as well:

http://www.networkworld.com/community/blog/us-fund-aggressive-technology-cuts-solar-powe

BOfH
11-01-2011, 10:07
WASHINGTON -- Another one of President Obama’s “green jobs” companies has bitten the dust.

Massachusetts-based Beacon Power Corp., which got a $43 million loan from the Department of Energy, filed for bankruptcy over the weekend -- sparking new questions about the troubled green-energy loan program.

The company’s collapse came just two months after California solar-power company Solyndra went under following a questionable $535 million loan from the same program funded by Obama’s stimulus law.

“This latest failure is a sharp reminder that DOE has fallen well short of delivering the stimulus jobs that were promised, and now taxpayers find themselves millions of more dollars in the hole,” said Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.).

Stearns is leading a House Energy and Commerce Committee probe into whether Obama campaign donors who also invested in Solyndra helped secure the generous federal loan guarantee for the ailing company.

The investigators are expected to subpoena the White House this week for more Solyndra documents.

The White House and the DOE deny any wrongdoing, and the president last week ordered an independent review of the loan program.

Beacon Power used some $39 million of its loan guarantee to build a $69 million, 20-megawatt plant in Stephentown, NY.

smiller@nypost.com

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/second_stimulated_green_firm_ko_KGt2JZNh3ni0sWzu2d dIUK