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Electric vehicle start-up Fisker is exploring bankruptcy, The Wall Street Journal reported this week. Fisker’s stock plunged this week as investors worry about the company’s ability to survive amid a cash crunch. The auto company also said it would slash 15% of its workforce. The Wall Street Journal reported: Electric-vehicle startup Fisker FSR -55.88%decrease; red down pointing triangle has hired restructuring advisers to assist with a possible bankruptcy filing, according to people familiar with the matter. Fisker, which recently warned that it risked running out of cash this year, hired financial adviser FTI Consulting and the law firm Davis Polk...

SolarCity (SCTY), another “green energy” company and recipient of millions of dollars of taxpayer funds, in under investigation by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), sources reveal. The company, which recently filed for its initial IPO, has disclosed that it received subpoenas in July from the U.S. Treasury Department. The Treasury Department is investigating whether companies overstated the market value of solar panel arrays they installed when claiming the 30% federal cash grant. The IRS also notified SolarCity that it is auditing two of its investment funds and reviewing the claimed value of solar systems submitted to receive the federal cash...

There's more Solyndras lurking in Obama's "green-land." The junk bond-rated Beacon, Evergreen Solar, SpectraWatt, AES’ subsidiary Eastern Energy, and the infamous, Solyndra all were beneficiaries of Obama's "green" obsession. According to a hard-hitting CBS News report; Beacon Power, a “green energy storage company,” received $43 million from the Obama admin. The deadheads in the Obama admin gave the biggest S%P 500 loser loan gurantees. The high-sounding "Solar Trust for America" received $2.1 billion in conditional loan guarantees from the DOE — “the largest amount ever offered to a solar project,” according to Obama's Energy Secretary Steven Chu. The project near...

In the final days of Gov. Jennifer Granholm’s tenure, the state Department of Energy, Labor & Economic Growth trumpeted the success of green jobs created in the solar industry. “Total job creation projected of 21,592” the April 12, 2010, DELEG presentation claimed. Almost two years later, the large majority of those jobs never saw the light of day. Even if they had come to fruition, they would just be a small part of the entire Michigan economy, says James Hohman, assistant director of fiscal policy at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. For example, the state of Michigan created 218,137...

A Daily Caller investigation has found that in addition to the failed company Solyndra, at least four other solar panel manufacturing companies receiving in excess of $500 million in loan guarantees from the Obama administration employ executives or board members who have donated large sums of money to Democratic campaigns. And as questions swirl around possible connections between political donations and these preferential financing arrangements, the Obama White House suddenly began deflecting The Daily Caller’s questions on Wednesday to the Democratic National Committee. Asked Wednesday to comment on the connection between large Democratic donors and Obama administration loan guarantees to...

Solyndra, the solar panel company whose highly publicized failure and consequent investigation by federal authorities has flashed across headlines recently, isn't the only business to go belly up after benefiting from a piece of the $800 billion economic stimulus package passed in 2009. At least four other companies have received stimulus funding only to later file for bankruptcy, and two of those were working on alternative energy.

Solyndra, the solar panel company whose highly publicized failure and consequent investigation by federal authorities has flashed across headlines recently, isn't the only business to go belly up after benefiting from a piece of the $800 billion economic stimulus package passed in 2009. At least four other companies have received stimulus funding only to later file for bankruptcy, and two of those were working on alternative energy. Evergreen Solar Inc., indirectly received $5.3 million through a state grant to open a $450 million facility in 2007 that employed roughly 800 people. The company, once a rock star in the solar...

Bay State start-up 1366 Technologies Inc. has steered clear of the dark clouds shrouding the nation’s solar industry. The Lexington company yesterday finalized a $150 million loan guarantee from the U.S. Department of Energy — the same day FBI agents raided bankrupt Solyndra, a DOE-backed California solar panel maker that’s become a symbol of “green” government investment gone wrong. “There are a lot of taxpayer protections in here,” 1366 spokesman Craig Lund said. “If we deliver on certain milestones then we’ve got certainty of funding, and on the flip side I think the government has very strong conditions in there.”...

When Evergreen Solar announced it was filing bankruptcy this week, the news sparked a flurry of stories pointing out how the “green” solar panel company had received money from the federal stimulus. The Massachusetts-based company was held up as another example of wasted taxpayers’ dollars under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). But Evergreen Solar may be a better example of just how complicated and difficult it can be to track the massive $821 billion federal stimulus. Because despite the White House and Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick both citing Evergreen Solar as receiving stimulus money, the government’s website that...

Evergreen Solar Inc., the Massachusetts clean-energy company that received millions in state subsidies from the Patrick administration for an ill-fated Bay State factory, has filed for bankruptcy, listing $485.6 million in debt. Evergreen, which closed its taxpayer-supported Devens factory in March and cut 800 jobs, has been trying to rework its debt for months. The cash-strapped company announced today has sought a reorganization in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware and reached a deal with certain note holders to restructure its debt and auction off assets. The Massachusetts Republican Party called the Patrick administration’s $58 million financial aid package, which supported...

Evergreen Solar Inc., the Marlboro clean-energy company that received millions in state subsidies to build an ill-fated Bay State factory, has filed for bankruptcy. Evergreen, which closed its taxpayer-supported Devens factory in March and cut 800 jobs, has been trying to rework its debt for months. The company announced today it is seeking a reorganization in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware and also reached a deal with certain note holders to restructure its debt and sell off certain assets. Evergreen secured a $58 million financial aid package from the Patrick administration to help build the $450 million Devens factory. The...

BEIJING — Aided by at least $43 million in assistance from the government of Massachusetts and an innovative solar energy technology, Evergreen Solar emerged in the last three years as the third-largest maker of solar panels in the United States. But now the company is closing its main American factory, laying off the 800 workers by the end of March and shifting production to a joint venture with a Chinese company in central China. Evergreen cited the much higher government support available in China. The factory closing in Devens, Mass., which Evergreen announced earlier this week, has set off political...

Massachusetts acknowledged today it will likely only be able to recoup a fraction of the tens of millions of dollars it spent to help Evergreen Solar Inc. build a massive solar panel manufacturing plant in Devens.

"Green energy jobs are the jobs of the future, and will help to propel our nation and our economy forward." — Rep. Rosa DeLauro,~CT.~ D-3rd District, June 15, 2010 Then again, maybe not. Folks in Massachusetts are in a lather about the recent conduct of Evergreen Solar Inc., which disclosed this week it will put 800 employees on the dole and shutter its factory in Devens. The Bay State, where politicians are guided by the same fantasies Rep. DeLauro articulated in her June 2010 remarks, has funneled an estimated $58 million into Evergreen for the express purpose of creating jobs,...

After receiving at least $43 million in aid from the state of Massachusetts, Evergreen Solar announced last month that it would be closing its manufacturing plant in Devens, Mass., laying off its 800 workers and moving its manufacturing operations to China. Warning: These are the "green jobs" that President Obama has touted as part of his "winning the future" agenda. The problem isn't that Obama wants to direct federal dollars toward research for alternative energy. It is in the national interest to have affordable options when oil sources are depleted. The problem is that Obama thinks that green jobs are...

Evergreen Solar announced last week that it was closing its plant in Devens, Mass., laying off 800 workers, and moving production to China. Evergreen’s factory had received more than $40 million in subsidies, which led many to see the plant closing as lesson in the futility of green energy and industrial policy. But what does Evergreen’s story really teach us about solar energy, public subsidies and the future of American manufacturing? Evergreen Solar’s story begins in 1994, when three alumni of Mobil’s solar division broke away to form their own company. They started in a 2,500-square-foot lab in Waltham, Mass.,...

A determined House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo is demanding answers from Gov. Deval Patrick and a top Republican is calling for an independent probe into how the state dropped nearly $60 million in a bad bet on a green energy firm that critics say took the taxpayer money and ran.Evergreen Solar Inc. scored one of the biggest state investments into a private firm in history — only to announce last week it would ax 800 Bay State workers, shutter its state-subsidized factory in Devens and ship operations to China.“I want to sit down and talk to the governor. ... What...

BOSTON – A solar panel manufacturer that received $58 million in state aid in 2007 to open a factory at a former Massachusetts military base is closing the plant and laying off 800 workers.Evergreen Solar Inc. announced Tuesday it is shutting down the Devens plant by the end of the 2011 first quarter.Gov. Deval Patrick had heralded Evergreen as key to the state's economic future in clean energy. Economic Development Secretary Greg Bialecki said the administration is disappointed and will work to recover any money Evergreen owes the state.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger announced the following appointments: Drew Bohan, 41, of Santa Barbara, has been appointed deputy cabinet secretary in the Office of the Governor. He has served as assistant secretary for policy for the California Environmental Protection Agency since last year. He was executive director of Santa Barbara Channelkeeper, a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting and restoring the Santa Barbara Channel, from 2000 to 2003. Previously he served as senior legislative counsel for the Republic of Palau National Congress. This position does not require Senate confirmation and the compensation is $95,000. Bohan is registered decline-to-state. Matthew Cate, 38, of...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed two East Bay residents to the board overseeing the agency that operates the state's electrical power grid. Elizabeth Lowe, 41, of Danville has served as vice president of Onsite Energy Corp. since 1997; earlier she was vice president of Western operations for DukeSolutions, Inc. Lowe is a member of the Power Association of Northern California, the International Association of Refrigerated Warehouses and the California League of Food Processors. She is registered to vote without a party affiliation. Mason Willrich, 71, of Piedmont was president and CEO of PG&E Enterprises before becoming an independent consultant advising clients...