Free Republic

When Webster Groves High School purchased solar panels to put on the roof of the school, no one told them they could catch on fire! The fire department was called on Saturday to put out the flames ... Plumes of black smoke could be seen coming from the roof at Webster Groves High School Saturday. Firefighters say solar panels caught fire around 2:00pm. Nearby residents noticed the smoke and called the fire department. The panels are above the new science wing.

Stop the presses! Another one of President Obama’s brilliant clean-energy ventures has collapsed after taking tens of millions of dollars from American taxpayers, in this case to develop a special wheelchair-accessible “green” van. The news comes just weeks after a separate company that got nearly $200 million from the government to develop hybrid vehicles folded. That fly-by-night company, Fisker Automotive, had been heavily touted by the administration as an innovator that would develop two lines of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles that could run up to 300 miles on a rechargeable Lithium-ion battery. Before doling out the cash, Obama’s Energy Secretary...

Another one of the Energy Department’s taxpayer-financed “investments” just went belly-up. This one died very quietly, without making a formal announcement, but USA Today noticed: A Michigan maker of vans for the disabled that received a $50-million Energy Department loan has quietly ceased operation and laid off its staff. Vehicle Production Group, or VPG, stopped operations after finances dipped below the minimum threshold required by the government as a condition of the loan, says its former CEO, John Walsh. Though about 100 staff were laid off and its offices shuttered, it has not filed for bankruptcy reorganization. For a change,...

During the dot-com boom, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, the venture capital investment firm, all but minted money, making prescient early investments in Netscape Communications, Amazon.com and Google and delivering astonishing returns to investors. Along the way, it became a symbol of Silicon Valley. But the firm has hit a rough patch over the last decade, frustrated by unsuccessful forays into clean technology and by a catch-up effort to take later-stage stakes in social media companies. Kleiner has held a series of status-report meetings with its outside investors this year, acknowledging that recent fund performance “wasn’t great,” one attendee said....

HUNTSVILLE, Ala., May 6 (UPI) -- The U.S. Army has given the first development contracts for renewable energy technologies under a $7 billion initiative. Five companies were awarded indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity awards in geothermal technologies. The U.S. companies are: Constellation NewEnergy Inc., ECC Renewables LLC, Enel Green Power North America Inc., LTC Federal LLC and Siemens Government Technologies Inc. The multiple award task orders were issued by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Engineering and Support Center, Huntsville, Ala., working with the Army Energy Initiatives Task Force. "Announcement of awards for the remaining technologies -- solar, wind and biomass -- are anticipated...

Back in 2011, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) declared war on energy-efficient light bulbs, calling "sustainability" the gateway into a dystopic, Big Brother-patrolled liberal hellscape. When the lights went off during Beyoncé’s halftime set at the last Superbowl, conservative commentators from the Drudge Report to Michelle Malkin pointed blame (erroneously) at new power-saving measures at New Orleans’ Superdome. And one recent study found that giving Republican households feedback on their power use actually encourages them to use more energy. Why do conservatives, who should have a natural inclination toward conservation, have a beef with energy efficiency? It could be tied to...

Colorado Senate Bill 252 and the multibillion-dollar economic burden it would impose on .. Colorado. ... SB 252 is being fast tracked to limit public debate. The bill squeaked through the Senate by just one vote and now will be heard in the House. Coloradans: It's time to contact your representative to say how critical it is to stop this costly bill. ... It will just take a minute or two to make your voice heard and your representative needs to hear from you today.

Spain's unemployment rate soared to a new record of 27.2% of the workforce in the first quarter of 2013, according to official figures. The total number of unemployed people in Spain has now passed the six million figure, although the rate of the increase has slowed. The figures underline Spain's struggle to emerge from an economic crisis which began five years ago. On Friday, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy will unveil fiscal and policy measures aimed at halting recession in the eurozone's fourth-largest economy. "These figures are worse than expected and highlight the serious situation of the Spanish economy as well...

“Bankruptcy now appears unavoidable, and a political reckoning is coming” writes the New York Time’s Bill Vlasic today about Fisker Motors, the Obama administration’s pet electric car company that received millions in federal loans. Vlasic described the car company as the “Solyndra of Electric car companies.” As Congress prepares to grill the leaders of Fisker Motors this afternoon, here are 47 depressing facts about Fisker:

In a city with an unemployment rate near 18 percent and a fiscal situation so bad it requires an emergency manager, the Flint Mass Transportation Authority is trying to buy a hydrogen bus that sells for $2.4 million — more than seven times as much as a traditional bus. Hydrogen fuel cell buses were as expensive as $3.5 million a few years ago but have dropped in price in the last year, transportation experts said. A typical diesel bus cost about $327,000, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation. "We are very interested in this new vehicle and hope to...

When a company wants to go public and offer shares of common stock, it must fill out an S-1 form, a background document used by investors for research before an initial public offering (IPO) is filed. Because they have a direct financial interest in the performance of a company, individuals and groups that invest are smart to look closely at this document before pledging their money. If only the government was as careful. Last summer, Michigan Capitol Confidential covered the “green” energy company Mascoma Corp., which has received more than $100 million from the federal government and another $20 million...

FORT BLISS, Texas -- A West Texas military base said Friday it plans to build the U.S. military's largest solar energy farm. Fort Bliss commander Gen. Dana Pittard made the announcement and touted the Army base's other green initiatives, including planting 14,700 trees, encouraging the use of energy-efficient vehicles and building bicycle lanes. The Army wants to generate about one gigawatt of power from renewable energies by 2025 -about a tenth of its total consumption or enough power to supply at least 250,000 homes. However, Fort Bliss decided to take it even further and plans to become a "net zero"...

Large swaths of the Arctic tundra will be warm enough to support lush vegetation and trees by 2050, suggests a new study. Higher temperatures will lessen snow cover, according to the study, which is detailed in the March 31 issue of the journal Nature Climate Change. That, in turn, will decrease the sunlight reflected back into the atmosphere and increase warming. About half the areas will see vegetation change, and areas currently populated by shrubs may find woody trees taking their place. "Substitute the snowy surface with the darker surface of a coniferous tree, and the darker surface stores more...

Italian authorities have seized a record $1.7 billion in assets from a Sicilian green energy entrepreneur with alleged ties to the Mafia.

Despite overall job growth in Michigan in 2011, there were fewer "green" jobs in the state, according to a U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported released Tuesday. The total number of green jobs in Michigan dropped from 85,228 in 2010 to 82,644 in 2011. Overall, the number of U.S. green jobs in 2011 was 3,401,279, an increase of 157,746 from the previous year. Green jobs accounted for 2.6 percent of all jobs in the United States in 2011. The BLS report considers jobs such as bus drivers and trash pickup to be "green" jobs. Overall, Michigan saw its total jobs...

When Solyndra went bankrupt and cost taxpayers up to $530 million, the Obama administration's green energy loan program was subjected to congressional hearings and became an election-year issue. Now, another solar panel company may be headed for a similar fate. SoloPower, which makes thin-film solar panels at a new plant in Portland, Ore., opened Sept. 27 with an upbeat ribbon-cutting ceremony. Local and state politicians gushed about the company eventually operating four production lines and creating 450 well-paid green jobs. Just a few months later, those predictions, and SoloPower's future, are on shaky ground. The first production line was never...

When you buy a car, there are various ratings outfits in the business of calculating the true cost of owning that particular vehicle, inc. insurance, depreciation, maintenance, cost of repairs, etc. Such a comprehensive model is surely more realistic than just looking at the monthly payment or sticker price, and the customer knows if they're actually making a cost-effective, bottom-line decision. But even if you buy-into the now imploding globaloney scam, wouldn't it make sense to apply similar logic to calculate the entire environmental impact of electric vs. internal combustion cars over the full service life... esp since the actual...

Video showing that the Earth is getting greener BECAUSE of more co2 in the atmosphere and that the use of fossil fuels is preserving nature, not destroying it.

No, the world ISN'T getting warmer (as you may have noticed). Now we reveal the official data that's making scientists suddenly change their minds about climate doom. So will eco-funded MPs stop waging a green crusade with your money? Well... what do YOU think? The Mail on Sunday today presents irrefutable evidence that official predictions of global climate warming have been catastrophically flawed. The graph on this page blows apart the ‘scientific basis’ for Britain reshaping its entire economy and spending billions in taxes and subsidies in order to cut emissions of greenhouse gases. These moves have already added £100...

(Reuters) - Country musician Jack Greene, a veteran star of the Grand Ole Opry, died of complications from Alzheimer's disease at the age of 83, the Nashville, Tennessee, music hall said on Friday. Greene, who was best known for his smooth voice and 1966 song "There Goes My Everything," died in his sleep at his home in the capital of country music, the Grand Ole Opry said in a statement. Known as the "Jolly Green Giant," Greene became a member of the Grand Ole Opry in 1967, a sign of elite status in the industry, regularly performing at the stage's...

Empty Boast: As we have noted before in our Issues & Insights pages, President Obama has taken credit for an energy boom he had nothing to do with. A government agency now confirms what many have known to be true. The Congressional Research Service has released a report, "U.S. Crude Oil and Natural Gas Production in Federal and Non-Federal Areas," that corroborates what we've said. "All of the increase (in oil and natural gas production) from FY2007 to FY2012 took place on non-federal lands, and the federal share of total U.S. crude oil production fell by about seven percentage points,"...

UNIVERSITY CENTER — Huron County, located in Michigan’s thumb, has become ground zero in the debate over the state’s renewable energy mandates. Residents showed up en masse recently at the Michigan Energy Public Forum at Delta College to air their views both for and against wind energy. The college’s Lecture Theater was nearly filled with speakers and guests for the “Readying Michigan to Make Good Energy Decisions” roundtable on Monday, March 4. The public forum was the third of four scheduled across Michigan in the wake of Gov. Rick Snyder’s delivering his “Ensuring Our Future: Energy and the Environment” message...

Over the last three decades, I've worked as counsel for several clients in the mining, oil & gas and battery industries. Because of that experience, I've always understood that battery manufacturing is extremely energy intensive. After all, the entire value chain from mining and purifying metals through component fabrication and final assembly requires massive fossil fuel and electric power inputs. Until last week, however, I didn't truly understand the magnitude of the energy inputs required to make a battery.

The Colorado health department is ordering bankrupt Abound Solar to clean up hazardous waste and thousands of solar panels that it says are unsellable at four Front Range facilities.

On February 11, 2013, the Denver Post ran a guest commentary of great clinical interest. In the piece in question, Colorado State University philosophy professor Philip Cafaro advanced the argument that immigration needs to be sharply cut, because otherwise people from Third World nations will come to the United States and become prosperous, thereby adding to global warming. “And make no mistake: Immigrants are not coming to the United States to remain poor,” warns the philosopher. “Those hundreds of millions of new citizens will want to live as well and consume energy at the same rates as other Americans. ....

A few years ago, the battery manufacturing plants for LG Chem were going to make Michigan "the world capital for advanced batteries" while helping to "transform our economy." In Holland, Mich., it was said it would "spur further job creation and economic development in the region." A company official said the state help "further validates the viability of our technology and capability." But the predictions never materialized. After a federal investigation, LG Chem is being made to repay $842,000 from a federal stimulus grant after it was discovered employees were paid to watch movies, play games or volunteer at local...

Environmental groups gathered on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Sunday and marched on the White House for a climate change rally largely aimed at pressuring President Obama to reject the Keystone XL oil sands pipeline. Organizers said 35,000 activists attended the rally, where speakers portrayed the battle over the pipeline as a struggle between grassroots green groups and deep-pocketed special interests. “They’ve got the lobbyists. They’ve got the super-PACs. They made the campaign contributions. They’ve got this town in their pockets — they have got the situation under control. And then you show up. And then we show up....

The Prince of Wales was secretly given a say over new laws to ban hunting and to introduce the Government’s green deal ... The Prince was most recently asked for his consent for the energy bill in September 2011, which passed into law the Government’s green deal which encourages homeowners to take out a loan to make their house more energy-efficient. He was also asked about the Hunting Bill in July 2003, the same month that MPs voted on a free ballot to ban hunting with dogs in the UK. ... The Prince has faced criticism for sending the letters...

An embattled former Obama administration appointee -- who was part of a group of attorneys accused of being terrorist sympathizers for defending "enemy combatants" -- has been hired for a post at the US Attorney's Office in Brooklyn, officials confirmed today. Tali Farhadian was one of several private attorneys who created a rift between Republicans last spring when the Obama Administration assigned them to posts within the Justice Department. Although Farhadian was handling unrelated matters in Attorney General Eric Holder's office, a political watchdog group accused Obama of overloading the agency with officials sympathetic to enemy combatants. Their appointments even...

The Keystone XL Pipeline has been viewed as a means to alleviate several problems: reducing America's dependency upon Middle East Oil, providing a source for America's refining of oil if America ever decides to face reality and challenge the environmentalist insistence against building domestic refineries, lowering the price of fuel at the pump (since increasing pump prices directly influences the price of all domestic products, everything moves by oil), providing employment for many Americans in the construction of the pipeline and at the port, and an assurance of a reliable source of crude (in case we decide to accept reality)....

The head of Germany's Green party, Claudia Roth, is under fire for 'high fiving' the Iranian ambassador to Germany, Ali Reza Sheikh Attar. Akhtar is accused of massacring Kurds when he was governor of their region between 1980 and 1985. Let's go to the videotape. More after the video.

Despite a few bumps, and much to the chagrin of those still celebrating the invention of the wheel, the modern energy market continues to expand. .. $529 million. More than a half billion dollars. That's how much the electric car manufacturer Fisker Automotive was initially promised by Uncle Sam. That was a few years ago, and since then the automaker has delivered about 1,500 vehicles to customers. But this outfit is far from being in good shape..

A 2012 performance review of the The Colorado Energy Office (CEO) revealed several disturbing findings by the State Auditor last month, which included a non-existent accounting system for CEO’s 34 programs, a runaway budget, and staff who had no knowledge of program goals or standards. The forty-eight page report was was dated December 18, 2012 and included background information on the CEO, key facts and findings, the State Auditor concerns, and recommendations for the CEO moving forward. The CEO was established via executive order in 1977 as the Office of Energy Conservation. Last year, House Bill 12-1315 changed CEO’s overall...

Though electric vehicles may not be attracting much hype at the Detroit Auto Show, their owners do enjoy privileged status in the city of Ann Arbor. While parking downtown, electric vehicle owners can charge their cars for free. The charging stations are typically located at the front of parking garages, and are reserved for electric vehicles only. On a busy weekend, electric vehicle owners can enjoy reserved, easy access downtown parking with a free "fill up." Drivers of conventional vehicles receive no such benefit. Pictured nearby is a Chevy Volt, a vehicle already infamous for costing taxpayers up to $3...

Automobile manufacturers and the oil industry on Tuesday released the results of laboratory tests showing that gasoline containing 15 percent ethanol caused fuel pumps and parts to fail, raising the specter of faulty check engine light readings and more frequent breakdowns for cars that use the blend. The American Petroleum Institute cast the report by the non-profit Coordinating Research Council as fresh evidence that the Environmental Protection Agency should rescind its 2010 decision to approve the sale of the so-called “E15″ blend for 2001 and newer automobiles. A previous study by the Coordinating Research Council, which counts API as a...

Farmer Mark Schroeder of Elgin, Minn., knew something was seriously wrong when he heard a noise from his new windmill that sounded like a helicopter landing on the roof of his house. "You could hear the noise 2 or 3 miles away," he said. The windmill shook furiously atop its 160-foot tower. Black smoke billowed from the control unit. Schroeder said he tried shutting off the power, but the windmill's three 25-foot-long blades continued spinning furiously. One of the 500-pound blades eventually sheared off and flew about 100 yards into a field, bringing Schroeder's dream of energy independence crashing to...

A congressional report found that foreign companies have been large beneficiaries of stimulus funds and received billions of dollars funds meant to promote green energy development and create jobs in the United States. The House Energy and Commerce Committee staff examined Treasury Department data and found that nearly one-quarter of the $16 billion in Section 1603 green energy grants went to a handful of large European and Asian renewable energy companies. “Billions of dollars have filled the coffers of overseas firms while the evidence of the promised permanent jobs and economic growth here in the United States is scarce,” reads...

DETROIT — Government bureaucrats who think they know best what people should buy and drive need to spend some time at the Detroit auto show. If they did, they’d see that people spend about as much time looking at hybrid and electric cars as they do flossing. That was evident again Monday when the international media descended upon Cobo Center to kick off the North American International Auto Show. They flocked to the new Corvette Stingray and kicked a lot of truck tires. Ram Power Wagon Occasionally, someone stopped to see what was plugged in. Therein lies the state of...

In a recent article in The Christian Science Monitor, two analysts from the Union of Concerned Scientists make the argument that President Obama’s investments in green technology were a good deal. The Union of Concerned Scientists’ John Rogers, a senior energy analyst in the Climate and Energy Program, and David Friedman, the senior engineer in the Clean Vehicles Program, described the well-publicized bankruptcies of Solyndra and A123 Systems as “a few falling acorns” and call critics “Chicken Littles.” President Obama’s green energy investments have received a lot of publicity in Michigan because four of the largest nine green companies to...

......................Organized science has become another special interest group lobbying for government favors. The temptation to present special-interest appeals as urgent public necessities has become not just irresistible, but commonplace. It is well-known that global warming skeptics are shut out...... ....The true believers in the threat of global warming use "education" and "communication" as euphemisms for suppressing and marginalizing dissenters. This crowd is strongly tempted by totalitarian solutions. The leading advocate of global warming fear, Dr. James Hansen, wants to put people who don't toe the line on trial for crimes against humanity. Peter Gleick, a scientist, a well-known advocate of...

Isn’t this just cozy? Former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson (D) is working both sides of the Export-Import Bank. Not only does Richardson sit on the bank’s advisory committee, he’s also a board member of one of its loan recipients. The U.S. Export-Import Bank recently steered hundreds of millions of dollars in federal loans to Spanish green energy conglomerate Abengoa, which happens to share an advisory board member with the bank. The Ex-Im Bank approved a $78.6 million direct loan to Spain-based Abengoa in December. It also approved a $73.6 million direct loan to a wind farm in Uruguay, which...

On a recent morning, Jack Luu parked his plug-in Toyota Prius in one of the most expensive lots at Los Angeles International Airport before flying off to a film shoot in Canada. The lot, where Mr. Luu leaves his car as many as 10 times a month for business trips, normally charges $30 a day. But when Mr. Luu returned home three weeks later, he drove out, as usual, without paying a dime. "That was a huge reason why I bought the car in the first place," says the 35-year-old Santa Monica, Calif., postproduction company executive, whose car qualifies for...

One item within the bill that was hurriedly passed in the wee hours — presumedly without reading it — was a one-year extension of a tax credit for wind energy. For new installations, it gives the industry a 2.2-cent credit per kilowatt-hour of energy produced for the first 10 years the installation is in operation. In a related story, Breitbart.com reported an extension of a tax incentive favoring the film industry. Section 317 of the freshly approved legislation includes an extension for “special expensing rules for certain film and television productions.” Congress first enacted production tax incentives favorable to the...

The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals has agreed to pay the parent company of the Ringling Bros. Circus $9.3 million to settle allegations that the animal group conspired to pay a witness for false testimony in a 12-year lawsuit over the treatment of circus elephants.

The mystery of the trainload of biodiesel that crossed back and forth across the Sarnia-Port Huron border without ever unloading its cargo, as reported by CBC News, has been solved.

A proposed ethanol plant for Frontier Renewable Resources in the Upper Peninsula has survived a legal challenge filed by the Sierra Club and a Chippewa County resident. But the company building the plant may be one of the biggest green failures in the country. While countless articles have been dedicated to exposing green failures like Solyndra, A123, LG Chem, Energ1 and others, Frontier, which is a part of Mascoma Corp., has received little media attention. In June, Michigan Capitol Confidential reported that Mascoma said it had "no experience in the markets in which we intend to operate." As was documented...

there was no grand celebration this month as Silicon Valley marked 25 years of light rail... The near-empty trolleys that often shuttle by at barely faster than jogging speeds serve as a constant reminder that the car is still king in Silicon Valley -- and that the Valley Transportation Authority's trains are among the least successful in the nation by any metric.

News that the Treasury Department's Inspector General has opened an investigation to determine whether three solar companies inflated the cost of their work to increase the payments they would receive from the government should send shivers down the spine of the taxpayer-subsidized green energy industry.The Washington Post reports that SolarCity, SunRun and Sungevity have received subpoenas from the Treasury Department’s office of inspector general for financial records to justify more than $500 million in federal grants and tax credits the firms tapped for performing work. The probe seeks to determine whether the companies accurately reported the market value of...

A new galaxy class has been identified using observations from ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), the Gemini South telescope, and the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT). Nicknamed “green bean galaxies” because of their unusual appearance, these galaxies glow in the intense light emitted from the surroundings of monster black holes and are amongst the rarest objects in the Universe. Many galaxies have a giant black hole at their center that causes the gas around it to glow. However, in the case of green bean galaxies, the entire galaxy is glowing, not just the centre. These new observations reveal the largest and brightest...

In 2010, President Barack Obama highlighted A123 Systems during a White House press conference saying, "This is what's possible in a green energy economy." The president's words have been prophetic, but not in the way he envisioned. A123 Systems has become a study in government-subsidized failure. Solyndra, a California solar panel company that received $535 million in federal aid and then went bankrupt, has been the poster child for green-energy failures. However, A123 Systems, which has its headquarters in Massachusetts but extensive automotive operations in Michigan, has its own list of issues. And, like Solyndra, the Obama administration trumpeted A123s...