Great pomp and circumstance greeted plans last year for a big new solar-panel production site in California. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger joined U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu at the groundbreaking in Fremont, Calif., and President Barack Obama put in an appearance this past May to celebrate this latest venture in “alternative energy.”
The Obama administration considers solar power to be a big part of the effort to replace fossil fuels and reduce the “greenhouse gases” that the administration blames for “global warming.” Plants such as the one in Fremont, built by the company Solyndra, are supposed to help usher in a new, jobs-rich era of green energy. To that end, Solyndra got a half-billion-dollar federal loan guarantee — courtesy of taxpayers — to build its high-tech robotic factory to make solar panels.
But it appears the era of green energy will have to wait a little while longer.
Solyndra recently announced it was shutting down one of its plants. About 40 workers will be laid off outright, and contracts for 150 more employees will not be renewed. In addition, it has slashed its estimated production capacity by more than half.
The New York Times reported: “The cost-cutting move … is a sign of the notable shift in the prospects for cutting-edge American solar companies, which now face intense price competition from Chinese manufacturers that use more established photovoltaic technologies. … [The Fremont plant] was supposed to be the first phase of a rapid expansion of the company. Instead, Solyndra has decided to shutter the old plant and postpone plans to expand [the new plant], which was built with a $535 million federal loan guarantee.”
Not surprisingly, the president isn’t making a trip to Solyndra’s facilities now to mark the bad news that it will be closing one of its plants, slashing production capacity and laying off workers.
The gloomy news would be bad enough under any circumstances, of course. But what makes it worse is that U.S. taxpayers are partially on the hook for this big solar power project.
Isn’t it past time the U.S. government got out of the business of trying to “guide” the energy market with subsidies, loan guarantees, excessive regulations and other meddling?