Beam me to Planet Gore !
Posted on 09/17/2011 2:49:08 PM PDT by maggief
WASHINGTON - The White House faced mounting political complications as a second top fundraiser for President Barack Obama was linked to a federal loan guarantee program that backed a now-bankrupt Silicon Valley solar energy company, and as two California lawmakers called for investigations of a state tax break granted to the firm.
Steve Spinner, who helped monitor the Energy Department’s issuance of $25 billion in government-backed loans to renewable energy projects, was one of Obama’s top fundraisers in 2008 and is raising money for the president’s 2012 re-election campaign.
Spinner did not have any role in the selection of applicants for the loan program and, in fact, was recused from the decision to grant a $535 million loan guarantee to Solyndra Inc. because his wife’s law firm represented the company, administration officials said Friday.
But Spinner’s role as a top official in the Energy Department program, which had not been previously revealed, is likely to spur new inquiries into whether political influence played a role in the handling of the "green" energy fund. Solyndra faces a congressional probe, a criminal investigation and separate internal inquiries at the Energy and Treasury departments.
(Excerpt) Read more at bostonherald.com ...
Steve Spinner
Technology Executive and Investor
San Francisco Bay Area Venture Capital & Private Equity
Current
Investor/Advisor at Cleantech and Internet companies Senior Fellow at Center for American Progress
Past
Advisor at Silver Lake Sumeru Loan Programs Advisor, Recovery Act Team & Chief Strategic Operations Officer, Loan Programs at U.S. Department of Energy Investor/Advisor at QuickHealth, DesiHits, Danoo, Netpulse, Snocap, Sahale Snacks, Alter-G
see all Education
Harvard Business School Wesleyan University
Recommendations
26 people have recommended Steve Connections
500+ connections Websites
Company Website
Steve Spinner's Summary
Experienced business executive with 17+ years of cleantech, media, entertainment, retail & consumer and government expertise. My current passion involves helping teams of engineers, scientists, physicians with starting their entrepreneurial ventures - advising them with all aspects (incorporation, product development, financing, hr, partnerships, sales and marketing) of starting and growing their businesses. Specialties
angel & venture financing, federal and state government initiatives, strategy formulation, early business plan development, negotiations, partnering, business development, M&A, building teams, organizational behavior. Steve Spinner's Experience Investor/Advisor Cleantech and Internet companies
Venture Capital & Private Equity industry
October 2010 – Present (1 year)
Angel Investor and/or Advisor - working with >10 companies to support their financing, government initiatives, strategic partnerships, business development, customer acquisition, and organizational development efforts Senior Fellow Center for American Progress
Nonprofit; Think Tanks industry
October 2010 – Present (1 year)
CAP is pioneering progressive, 21st century policy proposals to transform our nation and our economy in ways that protect the global environment, boost global prosperity, and create sustainable sources of clean energy to reduce the world’s reliance on dirty, carbon-based energy. Our low-carbon policy priorities encourage comprehensive upgrades in the efficiency of energy production and consumption as well as environmentally safe and sustainable energy diversification. And our commitment to sound scientific energy and environmental technology innovation exemplifies progressive ideals and pragmatism at work. Advisor Silver Lake Sumeru
Privately Held; Venture Capital & Private Equity industry
November 2010 – May 2011 (7 months)
Firm invests in middle-market technology companies with established business models and attractive growth prospects where there is an opportunity to create value through operational transformation. Loan Programs Advisor, Recovery Act Team & Chief Strategic Operations Officer, Loan Programs U.S. Department of Energy
Government Administration industry
April 2009 – September 2010 (1 year 6 months)
Reporting into the Office of the Secretary, was responsible for the strategic operations of the >$100B in loans and loan guarantees programs within the DOE. Program areas include automotive, nuclear, fossil, transmission & distribution, industrial energy efficiency and renewables generation and manufacturing (solar, wind, hydrogen, biomass, geothermal, etc.). Program announced 20 deals for $25B during 18 appointment tenure. Portfolio expanded beyond Small Business in September, 2009. DOE lead representative on the WH Business Council, WH Innovation Cohort, and WH Automotive Communities Task Force. Investor/Advisor QuickHealth, DesiHits, Danoo, Netpulse, Snocap, Sahale Snacks, Alter-G
Internet industry
June 2003 – April 2009 (5 years 11 months)
Angel Investor and/or Advisor - support financing efforts, business planning, customer acquisition, and organizational development National Finance Committee Member Obama for America
Nonprofit; Political Organization industry
January 2007 – March 2009 (2 years 3 months)
Helped lead fundraising efforts in Northern California for Obama For America. Spearheaded campaign's efforts to work with Silicon Valley technology companies. Point for West Coast Technology and VC/PE executive endorsements. One of the co-authors of Campaign's Technology Policy delivered at Google (Nov 2007).
Founder, Entrepreneurs for Obama Member, Technology Media Telecommunications (TMT) Committee TIGR Team Member Obama-Biden Transition Project
Government Administration industry
November 2008 – January 2009 (3 months)
Member of Technology, Innovation, and Government Reform (TIGR) working group, focusing on the Innovation & National Priorities efforts CEO Sports Potential
Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Health, Wellness and Fitness industry
February 2002 – November 2006 (4 years 10 months)
Founder of start-up sports sciences and educational services company, spearheading our nation’s efforts to combat the obesity crisis that is affecting our youth and our society. Drew up initial business plan, orchestrated two financing rounds, grew organization to 25 employees, developed two innovative products, and introduced them to the marketplace. Senior Vice President, Sales & Business Development NotifyMe Networks
Privately Held; 51-200 employees; Telecommunications industry
May 2000 – March 2001 (11 months)
Company sold to AT&T. Responsible for sales, business development and strategy organizations for company during intial commercialization. Senior Vice President, Strategic Partnerships NBC Internet
Public Company; 501-1000 employees; NBCI; Internet industry
November 1999 – May 2000 (7 months)
Merger of Snap, Xoom and certain NBC online assets. Continued responsibilies as head of business and channel development at Snap. Managed team of 45 negotiators and account management professionals. Led team's efforts in doubling revenue growth (to $28mm) post merger. Vice President, Strategic Development Snap
Privately Held; 201-500 employees; Internet industry
July 1998 – December 1999 (1 year 6 months)
One of four NBC executives asked to join Snap. Responsible for all strategy formuation, accessing new business opportunities and deal execution. Within in 12 months, built/managed/led team that generated 1999 revenue of $14 mm (up from $1 mm), closed over 400 deals in channel and business partnerships (total deal value = >$200 mm) and completed investments in over 20 companies (>750% ROI within 15 months). Director, Business Development NBC
Public Company; 1001-5000 employees; GE; Broadcast Media industry
June 1996 – June 1998 (2 years 1 month)
Promoted from Manager. Responsibilities included presenting annual and long-term strategies to NBC/GE executives; developing new business opportunities; negotiating and closing deals; and working with operating divisions during launch/acquisition phase. Led media co-investment opportunities with GE Equity Capital division. Program Manager, Marketing Atlanta Centennial Olympic Properties
Nonprofit; 501-1000 employees; Sports industry
September 1992 – June 1994 (1 year 10 months)
Marketing joint venture of the United States Olympic Committee and the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games. Promoted from Business Evaluations Associate. Managed market evaluation process that raised $655 mm in corporate sponsorships sales. Forecasted television advertising revenues for ACOG's sales strategy for the 1996 Olympic broadcast rights (NBC's $456 mm purchase was the largest rights fee in history at that time). Developed ACOP's Marketing Planbook for maximizing sponsor ad campaigns and ROI. Business Analyst McKinsey & Company
Partnership; 1001-5000 employees; Management Consulting industry
September 1991 – June 1992 (10 months)
As Henry Luce Scholar, selected as 1 of 18 Americans to spend year in Asia. Conducted problem analyses, developed recommendations, and facilitated implementation on top media client issues. Managed client company's efforts in launching new business that achieved #2 market position within 3 months of operations. Summer Associate McKinsey & Company
Partnership; 1001-5000 employees; Management Consulting industry
May 1990 – September 1990 (5 months)
As Firm's Gilbert Harrison Clee Scholar, worked in McKinsey's EuroCenter office concentating on pan-European projects. Steve Spinner's Education Harvard Business School 1996, Business Administration
1994 – 1996
Honors in Competition & Strategy, Marketing and Organizational Behavior
Activities and Societies: VP, Harvard Graduate Council (pan-Harvard student government); HBS Turnaround Symposium (chair) Wesleyan University BA, Classics, Economics
1987 – 1991
Presidential Commission on Race Relations (co-chair), Maynard Award (university Scholar Athlete); Henry Luce Scholar
Activities and Societies: Phi Beta Kappa, Beta Theta Pi, Cross Country, Track (4 team captain) Steve Spinner's Additional Information
Websites:
Company Website
Interests:
Democratic Party Politics, Triathlon, Golf, Organizational Behavior Groups and Associations:
Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games Network logo Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games Network CNET Networks Alumni logo CNET Networks Alumni Clean Economy Network - for cleantech and renewable energy business leaders logo Clean Economy Network - for cleantech and renewable energy business leaders Cleantech & Green Business for Obama logo Cleantech & Green Business for Obama Democratic National Committee logo Democratic National Committee Ex-NBCi-ers logo Ex-NBCi-ers Friends of LinkedIn logo Friends of LinkedIn General Electric Alumni logo General Electric Alumni Harvard Business School Alumni logo Harvard Business School Alumni Harvard Business School Alumni Network logo Harvard Business School Alumni Network Harvard University Alumni logo Harvard University Alumni Luce Scholars logo Luce Scholars McKinsey & Company Alumni (Unofficial McKinsey Group) logo McKinsey & Company Alumni (Unofficial McKinsey Group) Obama for America logo Obama for America Obama for America / Obama-Biden for President Campaign Alumni logo Obama for America / Obama-Biden for President Campaign Alumni Recovery Act Team at the Department of Energy logo Recovery Act Team at the Department of Energy TED: Ideas Worth Spreading logo TED: Ideas Worth Spreading U.S. Economic Development Forum logo U.S. Economic Development Forum United States Olympic Committee Alumni Network logo United States Olympic Committee Alumni Network Wesleyan Alumni in Philanthropy & Public Service logo Wesleyan Alumni in Philanthropy & Public Service Wesleyan Energy Professionals logo Wesleyan Energy Professionals Wesleyan University Alumni Association logo Wesleyan University Alumni Association Wesleyan University Technology Professional Network logo Wesleyan University Technology Professional Network White House logo White House Wine2.0 logo Wine2.0
Honors and Awards:
Henry Luce Scholar, Wesleyan University Scholar Athlete
Someone ask the idiots Reid and Pelosi how that draining of the swamp is coming along..../s =.=
The White House
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release
January 08, 2010
President Obama Awards $2.3 Billion for New Clean-Tech Manufacturing Jobs
http://www.americanprogress.org/aboutus/staff/SpinnerSteve.html
Steve Spinner
Senior Fellow
Steve Spinner
High-resolution image
Steve Spinner is a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress focusing on Energy Policy. Based in Silicon Valley, he is an advisor to numerous clean-tech and Internet companies.
In September 2010, Mr. Spinner concluded his appointment as the loan programs advisor in the Office of the Secretary in the U.S. Department of Energy focused on implementation of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Appointed on April 29, 2009, Mr. Spinner helped oversee the more than $100 billion of loan guarantee and direct lending authority for the Title XVII Loan Guarantee Program, or LGP, and the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing, or ATVM, loan program.
He worked closely with the commercial lending, state and regional development finance agencies, venture capital, private equity, and entrepreneurial communities. He was also the department’s member on the White House Business Council, the White House Innovation Cohort, and the White House Automotive Communities Task Force.
Steve Spinner’s career spans nearly 20 years in the technology, media, energy, and retail industries. Prior to joining the Obama administration, Mr. Spinner served the Obama-Biden Presidential Transition Team on the technology innovation and government reform working group. Before then, Mr. Spinner had been an active advisor and investor to over 30 leading technology companies, helping entrepreneurs grow their ventures, focusing on incorporation, financing, product development, organizational behavior, business development, and sales and marketing.
In 2002, Mr. Spinner founded Sports Potential, the preeminent educational services and sports sciences company. Mr. Spinner was senior vice president of NotifyMe Networks, a voice ASP company, which was sold to AT&T in 2001. From 1996–2000 he held several positions at NBC including senior vice president of strategic partnerships where he oversaw the company’s business and channel development departments, operations with over $70 million in annual revenues. Before his tenure at NBC, Mr. Spinner was program manager for Atlanta Centennial Olympic Properties, the marketing joint venture between the United States Olympic Committee and the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games.
Mr. Spinner began his career based in both Europe and Asia as a management consultant for McKinsey & Company focusing on media and entertainment clients. He received an M.B.A. from Harvard University and is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate from Wesleyan University.
A resident of Menlo Park, CA, Mr. Spinner is married and has two children.
Email: sspinner@americanprogress.org
http://www.americanprogress.org/aboutus/staff/
American Progress Staff
Executive Committee
John Podesta, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Center for American Progress and Chair and Counselor of the Center for American Progress Action Fund
Sarah Rosen Wartell, Executive VP
Jennifer Palmieri, Senior Vice President for Communications for the Center for American Progress and President and Chief Executive Officer of the Center for American Progress Action Fund
Neera Tanden, Chief Operating Officer
Winnie Stachelberg, Senior VP for External Affairs
Carol Browner, Distinguished Senior Fellow
Senior Staff
Rudy deLeon, Senior VP for National Security and International Policy
Debbie Fine, Senior VP and General Counsel
David Halperin, Senior VP and Director, Campus Progress
Araceli Ruano, Senior VP and Director of California Office
Andrew Sherry, Senior VP for Online Communications
Cynthia Brown, VP for Education Policy
George Estrada, VP for Technology
Michael Ettlinger, VP for Economic Policy
Tamara Fucile, VP for Government Affairs
Kate Gordon, VP for Energy Policy
Angela Kelley, VP for Immigration Policy and Advocacy
Daniella Gibbs Leger, VP for New American Communities Initiatives
Judd Legum, VP for Communications and New Media
Tara McGuinness, VP and Director of Think Progress War Room (CAP Action)
Jessica O’Connell, VP for Administration
Ed Paisley, VP for Editorial
Faiz Shakir, VP and Editor of ThinkProgress (CAP Action)
Distinguished Senior Fellow
Tom Daschle
Fellows
...
July 28, 2011
EXCERPT
A list of Obama’s California bundlers so far this year follows:
Min Max Name City State Employer Gave in 2008
...
$200,000 $500,000 Spinner, Steve Menlo Park CA Silver Lake Sumeru Y
...
Sep 10, 2009 – Steven J. Spinner ... President Obama announced ARPA-E funding at the National ... President Obama announced in Washington DC. • 0.346 ...
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0611/56993_Page3.html
Jun 15, 2011
Top Barack Obama donors net government jobs
EXCERPT
At the Department of Energy, four bundlers who together raised a minimum of $1.6 million have held staff jobs or advisory posts. Steven J. Spinner, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur and venture capital adviser, took over responsibility at the department for parceling out more than $100 billion worth of stimulus grants and other energy-related loans. Spinner also has been a frequent White House guest, listed more than 40 times.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/10/style/weddings-allison-berry-steven-spinner.html
WEDDINGS; Allison Berry, Steven Spinner
Published: March 10, 2002
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Allison Lynn Berry, the daughter of Susan and Brian Berry of Murrells Inlet, S.C., is to be married today to Steven Jonathan Spinner, a son of Paula Spinner and Dr. Morton Spinner of North Woodmere, N.Y. Rabbi David Steinhardt will perform the ceremony at the B’nai Torah Congregation in Boca Raton, Fla.
The bride, 30, is an associate with Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, a law firm in Palo Alto, Calif. She graduated from Stanford and Columbia Law School. Her father retired as the owner of B. Berry’s, a former men’s clothing store in Columbia, S.C., that was founded in 1898 by her great-grandfather Barney Berry.
The bridegroom, 32, is a media, technology and entertainment consultant in Menlo Park, Calif. He graduated from Wesleyan University, was a Henry Luce Scholar in Hong Kong and received an M.B.A. from Harvard. His father is a clinical professor of orthopedic surgery at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. A retired hand surgeon, Dr. Spinner had a practice in Cedarhurst, N.Y., which was managed by the bridegroom’s mother, also retired.
http://www.wsgr.com/wsgr/DBIndex.aspx?SectionName=attorneys/BIOS/2687.htm
Allison Berry Spinner
Partner
Corporate Finance
Corporate Law & Governance
Energy & Clean Technology
Entrepreneurial Services
Mergers & Acquisitions
Venture Capital
EXPERIENCE:
Allison Berry Spinner is a partner at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. Her practice focuses on corporate and securities transactions in the energy and clean technology sector, as well as the software, networking, wireless communications, semiconductor, Internet, consumer goods, and retail industries. She regularly handles corporate governance matters for public and private companies, investment banks, and venture capital and private equity firms.
Allison is a leader of the firm’s capital markets practice. Her recent experience includes the representation of Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, and a number of underwriters in the initial public offerings of Amyris, Inc. and Solazyme Inc., two of the leading clean tech IPOs in recent years. She also has extensive transactional experience in venture capital and public and private equity and debt transactions, as well as mergers and acquisitions involving both public and private companies. She has represented clients who have received funds from Accel Partners, Khosla Ventures, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Norwest Venture Partners, Sequoia Capital, and Warburg Pincus, among others.
Prior to joining Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, she clerked in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York.
SELECT CLIENTS:
Amobee
Blade Network Technologies (sold to IBM)
BrightGrid
Caitin
Carbon Motors Corporation
Ecologic Brands
HCL CleanTech
Ingres Corporation
Nexant
QuantumScape Corporation
Serious Materials
Tapulous (sold to Disney)
Tula Technology
EDUCATION:
J.D., Columbia University Law School, 1996
Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar; Managing Editor, Columbia Law Review
B.A., Political Science, Stanford University, 1993
With Distinction
SELECT SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS:
Moderator, “Investor Perspectives,” Next Generation Bio-Based Chemicals Summit, San Diego, California, February 14-17, 2011
Moderator, “The Road to IPO,” Next Generation Bio-Based Chemicals Summit, San Diego, California, February 14-17, 2011
Panelist, “Rise of Super Angels and Seed Investment Funds,” Advanced Venture Capital, Practising Law Institute, December 2010
Panelist, “The Rules, the Players and the Annual SEC Filings; Executive Compensation Disclosure, the Quarterly Report and Practical Tips,” Year-End and Quarterly Reporting, Practising Law Institute, September 2010
ADMISSIONS:
State Bar of California
Firm Represents Solyndra in First-Ever Close
of a DOE Loan Guarantee
On September 3, 2009, Solyndra became the first company to complete a U.S. Department of Energy loan guarantee transaction under Title XVII of the Energy Policy Act of 2005. Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati assisted Solyndra in negotiating the $535 million guaranteed loan facility and an associated equity financing to fund Solyndra’s construction of a $733 million solar panel manufacturing plant that will expand its manufacturing capacity in California, creating thousands of new jobs.
The completion of the transaction was announced by Vice President Joe Biden participating via satellite at a groundbreaking ceremony on September 4 at the project site in Fremont. Energy Secretary Steven Chu and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger were also in attendance.
The Department of Energy’s loan guarantee program, along with programs offering tax credits and other incentives, is intended to promote the commercial use of innovative energy technologies. Over the course of their lifetime, Solyndra’s manufacturing facilities are expected to produce enough solar panels to cut over 350 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions.
Please click here to read the Solyndra press release.
Isn’t CAP a SOROS front Comp.?
Oh please let a few paths lead to his door.
Yes, Spinner’s wife worked for the firm that represented Solynda. WH logs from late 2009 to early 2010 show a LOT of visits by Spinner.
Some more info over here:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2779904/posts
The one name I have not yet seen mentioned in any of this, and who has got to be in this up to his eyeballs is Van Jones. Green Jobs was his baby for the short time he was there, but there is no way Solyndra or any other one of these $35 Billion worth of “Green” loans got approved without Van Jones’ fingerprints all over it.
This is the first real proof of just how out of control this crew has been from the very beginning, and just the tip of the first iceberg to show. Word on the street is that there are at least four or five more Solyndras out there on the verge of declaring Chapter 11 as well.
We are just gettin’ started here folks....
As a Canadian observer, I can say that our federal government has managed to avoid most of these green schemes that waste money, but our provincial governments (notably Ontario) have wasted tons of money and propose to waste a lot more. So have some municipalities.
We need a general uprising in the so-called free world against this green economic disaster plan. It seems to be one of the main causes of the current global economic malaise and governments generally speaking don’t seem to get the problem at all, instead they are making it far worse by wasting all this money on schemes that can never pay off. I just read that the average cost of a green job is something like $4 million — for that much money, you could retire ten people for life and therefore create ten jobs. Or you could just use it more wisely.
I hope the eventual GOP nominee takes a very strong stand on “green waste” and I also hope we can sharpen our political stand against green economics, because we need more than case by case opposition, we need general opposition to all forms of wasteful phoney green economic stimulus spending, grants, and schemes. Anything involving wind and solar energy needs to be very carefully vetted and we would be further ahead to assume all of it is fraudulent and lose one or two good projects than to go ahead spending on these dubious ends. If it’s going to work, private enterprise will lead the way.
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/item_ktSaBCwrr6MDK2gMz7xqhN
NY’s Tax-Funded Ex-Terrorist
By PHIL KERPEN
Last Updated: 5:09 AM, September 9, 2009
Posted: 2:55 AM, September 9, 2009
VAN Jones resigned as White House green-jobs czar after the public got a look at his history of radical activism, including his time building the so-called Apollo Alliance — a coalition of left-wing interest groups unified around the green-jobs concept. But another, even more radical Jones (not related) is leading Apollo’s New York state activities.
Jeff Jones was a domestic terrorist in the late ‘60s and a fugitive from justice throughout the ‘70s — yet now he’s a leader of an influential, taxpayer-funded group.
Jones was a fugitive from justice for 11 years. His own account at his Web site says: “As a leader of the Weather Underground, Jeff evaded an intense FBI manhunt for more than a decade. In 1981, they finally got him. Twenty special agents battered down the door of the Bronx apartment where he was living with his wife and four-year-old son.”
With Mark Rudd and Bill Ayers, Jones in 1969 co-founded the radical Weatherman, which orchestrated the violent “Days of Rage” riots in Chicago, and later undertook an anti-government bombing campaign. Three of its members died when a bomb they were constructing to attack Fort Dix accidentally detonated in Greenwich Village.
And Jones is still proud of his terrorist activities — saying as recently as 2004: “To this day, we still, lots of us, including me, still think it was the right thing to try to do.”
Now, Jones is back to revolutionary organizing — but with taxpayers footing the bill. He’s the director of the Apollo Alliance’s New York affiliate and a consultant to the national group.
Apollo unifies the three most powerful elements of the political left — environmental groups, labor unions and street organizers like ACORN — and points them toward a common goal that enriches all of them under the banner of “green jobs.” (Van Jones was an Apollo board member until he joined the White House staff.)
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid recently credited Apollo with helping write the stimulus bill and getting it passed. Yet the stimulus’ “green jobs” provisions funnel federal tax dollars to unions, green groups and community organizers — that is, the organizations that make up Apollo.
(snip)
Though it wasn’t money from the just-passed stimulus bill, the Obama administration this week made its first big investment in renewable energy and good green-collar jobs. The Department of Energy, under a $40 billion clean energy loan guarantee program that the prior administration never used, awarded a $535 million loan guarantee to Solyndra Inc., Solyndra is a four-year-old California-based maker of cylindrical solar photovoltaic generating systems that has a state of the art manufacturing plant in Fremont, California.
This is why federal support is so crucial to the clean energy sector and green-collar job generation, particularly now. The guaranteed loan, the company said in a statement, will help finance a $725 million plant, capable of manufacturing 500 megawatts of photovoltaic generating equipment per year, that Solyndra is building in California. Solyndra executives said that constructing the plant will employ approximately 3,000 people, and operating it will generate 1,000 green-collar production jobs. Moreover, the 500 megawatts of photovoltaic energy it is capable of manufacturing each year is equivalent to the power generated by a mid-sized coal-fired electrical plant.
Scaling Up The Clean Energy Sector
Loan guarantees of this magnitude are just what the Apollo Alliance called for in The New Apollo Program, our national clean energy economic development strategy. It’s useful to remember that before the banking industry collapse last summer, and the severe downturn that began in September, clean energy was the fastest growing industrial sector in the United States. A big focused federal investment, Apollo asserted, would generate millions of new jobs in industries that are good for the environment.
In an article this week in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Apollo Board Members Leo Gerard, the president of the United Steelworkers of America, and Michael Peck, founder of MAPA Group and Gamesa’s director of media, institutional and labor relations in North America, make the same point. They report that 750,000 Americans already are employed in green-collar jobs. “They make energy-efficient products, produce renewable power and invent cleaner technologies, among other things,” Gerard and Peck wrote.
Much more, they said, is possible. “President Barack Obama and Congress can and should create millions more green jobs by passing and signing climate-change legislation that includes a cap-and-invest system to regulate carbon emissions and investments to grow clean energy technologies that will repower, refuel and rebuild our economy.”
Sound Policy and Investment Matters
Pennsylvania is an excellent case in point for how good clean energy policy and sound public investment can really work. Governor Ed Rendell and his aides have focused on building a new foundation for the state’s economy. Gamesa, the Spanish wind manufacturer, now employs 1,000 well-paid industrial workers in its Pennsylvania plants. On Tuesday evening, during his nationally televised news conference, President Obama commended another clean energy company, Serious Materials, which just reopened a plant in Vandergrift, outside Pittsburgh, that makes energy efficient windows. (see pix below)
Serious Materials, which we profiled this week in our Signature Stories feature, was the company that also reopened the Republic Windows and Doors plant in Chicago after it abruptly closed in December.
The point is that producing energy from sources other than coal and oil represents an enormous industrial, technological, and jobs opportunity. Americans understand its dimensions and are genuinely enthusiastic. This week in Chicago, for instance, tickets to the second annual Chicagoland Green Collar Jobs Summit, a convening of the city’s important clean energy policy makers and practitioners, sold out. Producers of other green-collar job and clean energy industry gatherings around the country report similar excitement.
One of the people who is really helping to make the clean energy future happen is our own Jerome Ringo, (see pix above) the president of the Apollo Alliance, who is on the road 300 days a year to deliver our clean energy, good jobs message. We feature Jerome this week on our home page. Keep pace with events on our Apollo Blog and Digest. And there are new links to information about how the stimulus dollars are being spent and how you can get involved on our Recovery Act Information Center. This week we posted guidance documents from the Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency for governments and companies seeking clean energy, good jobs grants and loans. Look for them under “Implementation Resources.”
//
The New Apollo Program (Apollo Alliance)
(More coming ...)
If Palin is elected President, Spinner is going to prison for a long time.
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