Free Republic

House lawmakers sharply criticized the head of the Department of Energy’s green energy loan program for not releasing documents requested by a committee looking into companies that have received taxpayer dollars. “It is disconcerting that the executive director of a major government program is unwilling to commit — to actually commit — to providing all the documents that an investigation committee of the Congress has requested,” California Republican Rep. Dana Rohrabacher .. told Mark McCall, the head of the DOE’s loan office, in a hearing Thursday, “and that the answer being given is using weasel words ... House committee members...

For the all the praise solar power gets for being “cleaner” than traditional energy resources, there sure are a lot of hazardous materials involved in the process. When a solar panel manufacturer goes out of business – like the bankrupt Abound Solar in northern Colorado – a costly cleanup of toxic materials must ensue. So what happens when no one jumps to cleanup all that cancer-causing cadmium? Environmental protests? Rep. Jared Polis funded ballot initiatives banning solar plants from Colorado? Actually, none of the above. Weld County Commissioner Sean Conway and Rep. Cory Gardner seem to be the only voices...

A taxpayer-funded “green” energy company that went bankrupt in July 2012 didn’t just leave behind a legal mess for its creditors – it left behind a mess of contaminated water and toxic carcinogens. Taxpayer Backed Green Energy Firm Takes Millions, Goes Bankrupt and Leaves Behind Toxic Mess Image Source: Associated Press. And its up to the owners of Abound Solar’s deserted 37,000 square foot facility to clean up the broken glass and hazardous wastes.

EXCLUSIVE...CompleteColorado.com EMAILS SHOW WHITE HOUSE DROVE FAILED GREEN-LOAN IN COLORADO

Abound made national headlines last year when the solar firm collapsed after receiving a $400 million taxpayer loan guarantee. But that failure could potentially stick taxpayers with an estimated $2.2 million more in cleanup costs ... ... Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment had informally ordered Abound Solar to clean up hazardous waste at four Front Range locations, where concerns were raised about contamination. The CDPHE found 2,500 pallets of “unsellable” solar panels and over 6,000 gallons of hazardous liquids. The panels and liquids contain cadmium, considered a toxic substance by federal health agencies

And the environmental pressure groups wanted you to believe solar energy was “clean” and “green.” If that’s true, then why do we keep hearing the words “toxic” and “hazardous” connected with the production of solar panels – especially with the companies that fail? The latest example of phony eco-purity is Abound Solar, which declared bankruptcy last summer after it had received $70 million of a $400 million Department of Energystimulus loan guarantee. According to news reports from Colorado, where Abound was based, the state Department of Public Health and Environment found 2,000 pallets of solar panels that couldn’t be sold...

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.

(Watch Dog) – The federal government’s dream of a renewable energy empire hinges on a scrubby outpost here, where scientists and executives doggedly explore a new frontier. If you live outside Colorado, you probably haven’t heard of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory – NREL for short. It’s the place where solar panels, windmills and corn are deemed the energy source of the future and companies who support such endeavors are courted. It’s also the place where highly paid staff decide how to spend hundreds of millions in taxpayer dollars. And the public pays those decision-makers well: NREL’s top executive, Dr....

DENVER—Emails between an independent consultant and the Obama administration suggest the consultant felt pressure to help arrange a loan guarantee for a Colorado solar panel manufacturer that later went bankrupt. The House Committee on Energy and Commerce asked the administration this month to explain what the U.S. Department of Energy knew about problems with a $400 million federal loan guarantee awarded to Abound Solar. The Loveland-based company filed for bankruptcy protection this summer and laid off about 125 workers after spending approximately $70 million of its loan guarantees. An Abound spokesman didn't return phone calls seeking comment. Abound has been...

Barack Obama denied politics had anything to do with his administration's green-energy loans to companies like Solyndra and Abound, both of which have gone bankrupt. The President even chuckled when asked if those loans were a waste of taxpayer dollars. Denver's News9 reporter Kyle Clark said in a Friday interview that Obama touted the "stimulus money going to Abound Solar" in a national address, but Abound Solar is "out of business and under criminal investigation" while the "jobs are gone and taxpayers are out about 60 million dollars."

Abound Solar filed for bankruptcy in June 2012, but the Department of Energy is still protecting their trade secrets, reports the Colorado Watchdog. The Colorado Watchdog filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the Department of Energy in early August — about six weeks after Abound’s bankruptcy — asking for all testing data on solar modules produced by the company. The response Colorado Watchdog got was a bunch of test pages with all the relevant data redacted. “Abound Solar has substantial commercial interest in protecting the release of the redacted confidential module test data within the responsive records, since...

On Friday, Republican Congressman Cory Gardner of Colorado announced he was signing on to a letter requesting that Energy Secretary Steven Chu provide documents and information regarding what the Energy Department knew about Abound Solar’s actions while giving it taxpayer dollars. “We will be sending this letter to the Department of Energy, to Secretary Chu, demanding information on technical reports, engineering reports, marketing analysis, schematics, information they had on the failure rate, the technology flaws. This is an investigation that will be launching today,” Gardner said in an interview with 1310 KFKA’s Amy Oliver, “but we need to have answers,...

Abound Solar, a company that won a $400 million Energy Department (DOE) loan guarantee in 2010 to manufacture advanced solar panels, is closing and filing for bankruptcy, according to DOE. Abound’s collapse follows last year’s demise of the solar company Solyndra and is sure to feed Republican attacks on White House green energy programs despite support for Abound’s loan from several GOP lawmakers ahead of its approval. The Colorado-based Abound had drawn $70 million of the loan, according to DOE. Abound will close its doors and file for bankruptcy next week, the department said.

(CBS News) It was number 17 on the White House's 100 Recovery Projects That Are Changing America list. Now, Abound Solar is about to join the taxpayer-supported green energy firms that have filed for bankruptcy. Abound Solar was approved for a $400 million dollar taxpayer loan guarantee under the same program as did now-bankrupt Solyndra. Abound received about $70 million of the total by last Sept., but failed to meet certain financial milestones and the Energy Department cut off the rest of the loan. The Department of Energy announced news of Abound's impending bankruptcy in an article on its Website...

WASHINGTON—Solar-panel manufacturer Abound Solar Inc. is closing its doors, putting about $68 million in U.S.-backed loans at risk of not being repaid. Abound, of Loveland, Colo., said it had failed to come to terms with potential buyers over the last several months and would seek bankruptcy-court protection next week. It said 125 employees would lose their jobs. Republicans were quick to criticize the firm's collapse as the latest setback to President Barack Obama's energy policy. In the highest-profile case, solar-panel manufacturer Solyndra LLC declared bankruptcy in September after receiving $528 million in federally backed loans. Last month Mitt Romney, the...

A Department of Energy-funded solar company that laid off 280 workers last week quietly imposed a mandatory, temporary cessation of its operations during the holidays, and warned employees to “not let the rumor mill create false purposes for this shut down.” And in another sign of potential financial troubles, a company document that is supposed to guide “the next great solar company” advises leadership to “stretch payables” to help attain its goals. The forced time off was discovered in an internal memorandum obtained by The Complete Colorado, a news digest Web site, which also revealed the planning document. Employees...

State-level conservative blogs and think tanks are doing the work the rest of the “mainstream media” won’t do on government big green boondoggles. Last week, Doug mentioned the Abound Solar debacle here in my home state of Colorado. It’s thanks to the intrepid investigative work of Colorado’s Todd Shepherd and Amy Oliver at Complete Colorado and the Independence Institute and Michael Sandoval at People’s Press Collective that this latest Department of Energy loan scandal has been exposed. Paul Chesser at the NLPC summarized: Yet another solar company that received loan guarantees from the Department of Energy has dismissed factory workers,...

The solar shakeout continues as Abound Solar, a Colorado startup that aimed to take on industry leader First Solar with a $400 million federal loan guarantee to build photovoltaic panel factories, halts production and lays off 180 workers. In addition to the $400 million loan guarantee, Abound, which was founded in 2007, has raised $260 million in venture funding from investors that include Invus Group, Bohemian Companies, DCM, GLG Partners, Technology Partners, BP Alternative Energy and West Hill Investors. Whether Abound can compete in an increasingly tough solar market remains in question.

Green Energy: Another stimulus-backed solar panel maker, one the president touted in a weekly radio address, lays off most of its workers. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting a different result. President Obama is the Little Orphan Annie of presidents. He is always singing that the sun will come out tomorrow and shine on the American economy and his dreams of green energy. Yet companies such as Solyndra have proved the rule rather than the exception, producing more pink slips than green jobs as solar power and alternative energy continue to be eclipsed by advances...

Yet another solar company that received loan guarantees from the Department of Energy has dismissed factory workers, lopping off 70 percent of its U.S. employees. Loveland, Colo.-based Abound Solar announced Tuesday it would lay off 280 workers at its production plant near Longmont, leaving 120 still employed. The start-up (2009) company attributed the cutbacks to the need for upgrades at the plant to manufacture more efficient solar panels, with plans to restore production levels and rehire most employees within six to nine months. “Hopefully at the end of that time period we will bring people back,” said Steve Abely,...