Solar company touted by Obama closing

[oldsbdcjim]

Solyndra to Declare Bankruptcy
President Obama touted the facility only a year ago.
By Scott McGrew
| Wednesday, Aug 31, 2011 | Updated 10:10 AM PDT
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Solyndra -- recently touted as an innovator by President Obama -- is reportedly shutting its doors. Employees are being turned away this morning.

Solyndra -- recently touted as an innovator by President Obama -- is reportedly shutting its doors. Employees are being turned away this morning.
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Update: Solyndra announces it plans to file Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is suspending operations and seeks a reorganization. Click here for the company's full statement.

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Solyndra, a major manufacturer of solar technology in Fremont, has shut its doors, according to employees at the campus.

"I was told by a security guard to get my [stuff] and leave," one employee said. The company employs a little more than 1,000 employees worldwide, according to its website.

[Analysis: Solyndra Bankruptcy a Disaster for President Obama]
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Shortly after it opened a massive $700 million facility, it canceled plans for a public stock offering earlier this year and warned it would be in significant trouble if federal loan guarantees did not go through.

The company has said it will make a statement at 9am California time, though it's not clear what that statement will be. An NBC Bay Area photographer on the scene reports security guards are not letting visitors on campus. He says "people are standing around in disbelief." The employees have been given yellow envelopes with instructions on how to get their last checks.

Solyndra was touted by the Obama administration as a prime example of how green technology could deliver jobs. The President visited the facility in May of last year and said "it is just a testament to American ingenuity and dynamism and the fact that we continue to have the best universities in the world, the best technology in the world, and most importantly the best workers in the world. And you guys all represent that. "

The federal government offered $535 million in low cost loan guarantees from the Department of Energy. NBC Bay Area has contacted the White House asking for a statement.

Some Republicans have been very critical of the loans. "I am concerned that the DOE is providing loans and loan guarantees to firms that aren't capable of competing in the global market, even with government subsidies" Florida Congressman Cliff Stearns told the New York Times.


Listen! Hear that big flushing sound, its just $535 million that the federal government just flushed down the crapper.

[ktpelec]

Solyndra's loan was the first under a guarantee program in 2005 under the Bush Administration.

online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904583204576542573023275438.html?mod=ITP_marketplace_0

[intheloop]

article: "Solyndra's loan was the first under a guarantee program created in 2005 under the administration of President George W. Bush. Much of the program's funding has come from the 2009 economic-stimulus package." our government should not be involved in any buisness because it's not the role of our government to do this, if they want to help a industry it should be in the form of tax breaks only.

Ron Paul 2012

[marcus]

You rock Ron Paul, bush and HBO could learn alot from you.They are mega spenders

[bo862]

Without government involvement this will happen more often. We will not be able to compete for future jobs if we have a hands-off policy.

www.nytimes.com/2011/09/02/business/global/us-solar-company-bankruptcies-a-boon-for-china.html


HONG KONG — The bankruptcies of three American solar power companies in the last month, including Solyndra of California on Wednesday, have left China’s industry with a dominant sales position — almost three-fifths of the world’s production capacity — and rapidly declining costs.

Those bankruptcies and closings represent almost one-fifth of the solar panel manufacturing capacity in the United States, according to GTM Research.

Loans at very low rates from state-owned banks in Beijing, cheap or free land from local and provincial governments across China, huge economies of scale and other cost advantages have transformed China from a minor player in the solar power industry just a few years ago into the main producer of an increasingly competitive source of electricity.

He attributed the Chinese industry’s low costs not to inexpensive labor in China — high-technology solar panel manufacturing is not labor-intensive — but rather to free or subsidized land from local governments, extensive tax breaks and other state assistance.

[intheloop]

This was hardly a hands off program (535 million) and it still didn't make it, if the government wants to help private enterprise compete it needs less restrictions and fair trade laws. We had a capitalist system once upon a time.

Ron Paul 2012

[bo862]

That is not a trivial amount to be lost, but using it as another chance to bash obama or push for a specific ideology misses what is really important with this information.

Our corporations are not able to compete against Chinese businesses because they are supported by their government. Whatever industry that they decide to pursue has financing from their nation. Even if all regulations and government interventions are removed from U.S. companies they will still not be able to compete against subsidized businesses.

This from the article posted above about china businesses “free or subsidized land from local governments, extensive tax breaks and other state assistance.”

The idea of a hands-off approach that is pushed by some in this nation may be ok in a perfect world where everyone lives by the same rules, but this concept puts us at a disadvantage to the nations that do not. We can try to live by this ideology and watch our businesses go bankrupt while China takes more market share from any industry they set their sights on.

Yes 535 million is a lot, but in the long-term loosing those jobs in America is a bigger loss than that amount. What is worse, with our current view of little or no help to industries we will continue losing jobs to foreign nations, and eventually our economic advantage.

The hands-off comment is based on the ideology of no government intervention in business that some political views support. I assumed that was your intent with this comment “our government should not be involved in any buisness because it's not the role of our government to do this”