When You've Lost "60 Minutes"...

Leslie Stahl interviewed ex-DOA "scientist" Steven Koonin who considers himself blameless for approving "on the order of 30" of the $150-billion in Green Graft loans that either went straight into the pockets of a few well-connected "innovators" or straight down the shitter, producing nothing but FAIL.

Stahl: The government spent about $150 billion on these innovations. Taxpayer dollars. Money well spent?
Koonin: I think there are significant developments that have come out of that spending that impact our energy system now. (!!!!????!!!! No shit, Sherlock!) New technologies demonstrated. (You mean those "new" 18th century windmills?) I think it was good value for the money.(I'm sure Mark Knofler* would agree.)
Stahl: Well, Solyndra went through more than half a billion before it failed. Then I'm gonna give you a list of other failures: Abound Energy, Beacon Power, Fisker, V.P.G., Range Fuels, Ener1, A123, Ecotality. I'm exhausted.
Koonin: As I told you, the energy business is tough.

Pardon the fisking, but his utter obliviousness to this level of FAIL is unreal. Check out the rest of the transcript at the link, which also contains this QOTD, even though it's old:

"When government tries to pick losers and winners, it typically picks loser. Why? Because in a free market, consumers pick winners to leave the losers for the government." 

 *Cultural reference:

Lurch Vows To Win Global Warming Treaty

You mean with folks like Japan, John? You know, the country that already bowed out of renewing Kyoto?
Or how about Oz, where the Prime Minister's Business Advisory Council Chairman said--on the front page of the Australian three days ago:

From the UN on down, the climate change delusion is a gigantic money tree. It is a tyranny that, despite its pretensions, favours the rich and politically powerful at the expense of the poor and powerless. But the madness of the crowds is waning and, as Mackay writes of the perpetrators: 'Punishment is sure to overtake them sooner or later.' We can only hope it comes before most of us descend into serfdom.

Well, you can count on the Saudis, and Putin of course--though he bailed on Kyoto too. They'll be happy to help your plans to hobble the American Dynamo even further. Oh, and don't forget the Maldives--they need those airports so the country won't sink into the sea because of !!!GlobalWarming!!!.

Well, Weasel Zippers did make a good point: "He's less likely to muck things up while he's preoccupied fighting a problem that doesn't exist."

Obama's Model Economy Nationalizes The Sun

Yes, Spain, the nation that took Green Economic Collapse to unheard of heights--or depths--has outdone even itself. By "Royal Decree" it has nationalized the Sun--and will fine anyone collecting their own sunlight.
"If you get caught collecting photons of sunlight for your own use, you can be fined as much as 30 million euros...If you were thinking the best energy option was to buy some solar panels that were down 80% in price, you can forget about it."
Bwuhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha. So, how's the Spanish solar industry taking this?
"Of all the possible scenarios, this is the worst," said Jose Donoso, president of the Spanish Photovoltaic Union.
Bwuhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.
Even better--it used to take 12 year to break even on a 2.4KW residential installation.* Now it will take 35 years.
Bwuhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.

*Actually bullshit, because the panels don't last that long.

Karma is a MuthaFucka

Well, bankrupt Fisker got the balance of its half-billion DOE Scamulus loan guarantee anyway Friday and immediately fired 75 percent of its employees. Oops...

According to the class action suit filed by Outten & Golden, in a California district court, Fisker failed to notify the employees 60 days in advance, violating the federal U.S. Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act and a similar state WARN Act.

The same firm won $3.5 million for fired Solyndsa workers.
Bwuhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha. 

H/T Tom Nelson 

Fisker Hires Bankruptcy Lawyer, Still Wants $300 million In Scamulus

They only make one product, the Karma, a $96,500 luxury electric sportster that only Elitist Eco-tards like Leo DiCaprio can afford to slake their vanity with. The company hired a bankruptcy attorney on Good Friday.
And even though it's burned through $1 billion already, and its latest speculative venture is to build the $55,000/copy Atlantic is with China, Fisker still wants the balance of its $529 million US DOE Scamulus loan guarantee.
Obamandias and Steven Chu were unavailable for comment.

Even the DOE Loan Program Office still touts the public benefits of taxpayer “investment” in Fisker, noting that the project would produce 2,000 permanent jobs, 17.4 million gallons of gasoline displaced, 154,000 tons of carbon dioxide avoided, and 30,000 annual cars off the road.

Actual results for the $193 million in taxpayer funds already flushed on this boondoggle...?

So as a result, some 200 employees in the U.S. are idled. This is a drop from 775 employees in February 2012, when Fisker lopped off 71 workers when its plans to build the Atlantic in Delaware were shelved. Forty more were let go late last year, and apparently another 100 were dropped since December. But again, multiple media sources have said no Karmas have been produced for eight months, and as of October only 2,000 had been sold.

Curiously, ultra-rich Karma owners DiCaprio, Algore and Justin Bieber were absent from the Bankruptcy announcement.

H/T Tom Nelson

BioFuels: Working Even Better Than They Planned

Ah, the wonders of a command economy...

In one scenario analyzed by NERA, the death spiral produces a 30% increase in gasoline prices and a 300% increase in the cost of diesel fuel in 2015. Potential adverse macroeconomic impacts include a “$770 billion decline in GDP and a corresponding reduction in consumption per household of $2,700.” Ludwig von Mises coined a term for such debacles: “Planned Chaos.”

Well, if it's getting Henry Waxhead to actually take another look, it's almost worth it.

H/T Tom Nelson