Obama's Pet $1.6 Billion Solar Plant Needs $500+ Million Bailout



"I deem this plant profitable and economically sustainable-- even though it needs a gift of more than half-a-billion dollars of your money. You folks can all thank me later."

(pic from DailyTech)

It's Obamanomics in action! Get money from limitless source (such as middle class taxpayers), blow it on some piece of sh*t that doesn't work and/or makes no economic sense, then request or demand more money from said limitless source and/or complain about racism.

Brilliant!

From Fox News (via Gateway Pundit):

After already receiving a controversial $1.6 billion construction loan from U.S. taxpayers, the wealthy investors of a California solar power plant now want a $539 million federal grant to pay off their federal loan.

"This is an attempt by very large cash generating companies that have billions on their balance sheet to get a federal bailout, i.e. a bailout from us - the taxpayer for their pet project," said Reason Foundation VP of Research Julian Morris. "It's actually rather obscene."

The Ivanpah solar electric generating plant is owned by Google and renewable energy giant NRG, which are responsible for paying off their federal loan. If approved by the U.S. Treasury, the two corporations will not use their own money, but taxpayer cash to pay off 30 percent of the cost of their plant, but taxpayers will receive none of the millions in revenues the plant will generate over the next 30 years. [That may not be a big deal, since this thing is economically suspect at best.]

"They're already paying less than the market rate," said Morris, author of a lengthy report detailing alleged cronyism and corruption in the Obama administration's green energy programs. "Now demanding or asking for a subsidy in the form of a grant directly paying off the loan is an egregious abuse."

NRG doesn't see it that way, telling Fox News the money is there for the taking."NRG believes in a clean and sustainable energy future and therefore participates in available government programs to develop and expand the use of clean energy to accelerate America’s energy independence." In 2013, the Obama administration handed out $18.5 billion in renewable energy grants, with $4.4 billion going to solar projects.

Ivanpah is the largest concentrated solar power plant in the world. It was unveiled in February with great fanfare. Dr. Ernest Moniz, the U.S. Secretary of Energy, justified taxpayers' investment at the time, saying, "We want to be technology leaders. It's good for our economy and it’s also good for helping stimulate the global transition to low carbon."

But since then the plant has not lived up to its clean energy promise. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the plant produced only about a quarter of the power it's supposed to, a disappointing 254,263 megawatt-hours of electricity from January through August, not the million megawatt-hours it promised. [emphasis mine]

As an added bonus, the plant also kill birds at an alarming rate due to the fact that the plant's mirrors both attract and roast them alive. It's "speciesism" at its worst. So, that young woman who adopted that rescue chicken "Snow" probably doesn't like it much.

But let's remember that Obama and cronies didn't fail us all with the solar plant, the sun and the solar plant failed them. Probably because of racism and ungovernable people and such...