Shrink the State. End the Fed. Balance the budget. Make a profit. Leave an inheritance.
Gary North
Private investors are always on the lookout for new technologies that will make them rich if the technologies are successful. But when they spot turkeys that are likely to become money pits, they pass. That’s where the Department of Energy steps in. This month, the DOE is focusing on energy storage technologies. It’s all part [...]
Continue reading →The White House on August 7 issued a press release. It invokes the following: “the Obama Administration’s record of success in permitting an unprecedented number of utility-scale renewable energy projects. ” I have no doubt that these will be equally successful. Obama just can’t wait. I am not making this up. See it for yourself. [...]
Continue reading →The U.S. Department of Energy and the Department of Agriculture have decided to use $1.37 million in taxpayer funds to see if there is a commercial market for hybrid shrub willow. Apparently, commercial enterprises did nott think it was worth $1.37 million to find out. Two researchers at Cornell University have been researching this since [...]
Continue reading →These stories are becoming common. A woman borrowed $100,00 to get a college degree. She stopped paying interest. Now she owes $142,000. Some guy married her. Now he owes $142,000. Combined, their after-tax income is $42,000. They cannot write off interest payments from gross income. The law was changed. Will they be able to buy [...]
Continue reading →Companies go bust all the time. The question is: Do they take taxpayers’ funds with them? If the answer is “yes,” that raises another question: If politicians and bureaucrats had not poured money into this project, would it ever have begun? “Green energy” is mostly a boondoggle. Most projects cannot make it on theirs own. [...]
Continue reading →The U.S. Air Force recently spent $59 a gallon to fly planes. This was a biofuels experiment. Normally, the oil-based fuel cost $3.96 a gallon. The Air Force is in a race with the Navy. Recently, the Navy ran an strike group for its carrier group on biofuels for a day. The cost? A mere [...]
Continue reading →The U.S. government plans to spend $20 million to “help clean energy projects in Africa get started.” There will be wind farms. There will be solar panels. Hillary Clinton has describd the program this way. “The U.S.-Africa Clean Energy Finance Initiative will help clean energy projects in Africa get started. This is an innovative partnership [...]
Continue reading →We all remember Solyndra. It was a producer of solar panels that got government loan guarantees. It went bankrupt. The lenders got paid by taxpayers. There is another firm that is bordering on a Solyndra event. This one produces components to produce geothermal energy. Its auditors question whether it can stay in business. The loss [...]
Continue reading →If a U.S. government agency wants to buy solar panels, it must by them from a U.S. government corporation. This corporation uses federal prisoners to assemble the panels. Prisoners are paid between 23 cents an hour and $1.15. This sounds like slave labor to me. But can slave labor produce sophisticated solar cells? Of course [...]
Continue reading →If a green energy company is given $40 million by the government to create jobs, and a total of three jobs are created, 2008 to the present, what should the government do about this? The Department of Energy knows: provide another $80 million. Department of Energy officials have made available this money for a New [...]
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