As a third generation farmer, I was taught corporate subsidies were necessary to support farmers and green energy. We even erected windmills on our farmland.
My stance changed after studying Solyndra, former President Barack Obama’s $80-billion subsidized solution to climate change.
Solyndra, a solar panel company, was founded in 2005. The company’s investors gave $87,050 to Obama’s campaign.
Solyndra spent $550,000 lobbying Congress after Obama’s election, and nearly the same amount supporting the American Clean Energy Leadership Act of 2009 and the Solar Manufacturing Job Creation Act.
Obama gave Solyndra a $535 million federal loan, citing them as “a testament to American ingenuity and dynamism”, rejecting memos from Solyndra board members criticizing company mistakes and describing Solandra founder Christian Gronet’s actions to “border on moronic”. Solyndra declared bankruptcy a year later but records show the Department of Energy’s recommended that Solyndra delay the announcement after the 2010 midterm elections, which threatened Democrat’s control of Congress.
Green energy was not the problem; corporate subsidies were. Green energy can be a viable energy solution, but it must compete on its own merit.