Well, great news! CBS News found a dozen more Solyndras – “green energy” companies pumped full of your money in defiance of all business sense:
Take Beacon Power -- a green energy storage company. We were surprised to learn exactly what the Energy Department knew before committing $43 million of your tax dollars.But wait, there’s more!
Documents obtained by CBS News show Standard and Poor's had confidentially given the project a dismal outlook of "CCC-plus."
Asked whether he'd put his personal money into Beacon, economist Peter Morici replied, "Not on purpose."
"It's, it is a junk bond," Morici said. "But it's not even a good junk bond. It's well below investment grade."
Was the Energy Department investing tax dollars in something that's not even a good junk bond? Morici says yes.
"This level of bond has about a 70 percent chance of failing in the long term," he said.
You read that right, folks: Beacon Power had a CCC-plus toxic rating from S&P before investment genius Barack Obama poured $43 million of your money into it. They did indeed go bankrupt, two months ago. No, you probably aren’t getting your money back.
CBS News counted 12 clean energy companies that are having trouble after collectively being approved for more than $6.5 billion in federal assistance. Five have filed for bankruptcy: The junk bond-rated Beacon, Evergreen Solar, SpectraWatt, AES' subsidiary Eastern Energy and Solyndra.
Others are also struggling with potential problems. Nevada Geothermal -- a home state project personally endorsed by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid -- warns of multiple potential defaults in new SEC filings reviewed by CBS News. It was already having trouble paying the bills when it received $98.5 million in Energy Department loan guarantees. ...read the rest.
