Solyndra Plant Right Out Of Atlas Shrugged...

Damocles

Damocles

Accedo!
Staff member
In Atlas Shrugged Tagny, traveling with Hank Reardon, comes upon an engine plant in Wisconsin (I think it was Wisconsin, it's been a while)... It was totally defunct, and as they searched the plant they found areas with awesome showers, play rooms, etc... Later in the book Tagny meets the idiot who ran that company who did it to make their employees "happy", but they all lost their jobs anyway when their engines sucked and were too expensive due to costs and production issues... He had gotten loans from a bank that gave loans based on "social justice" to purchase it from the person who retired that had built the best engines, etc. The bank that gave the loans also failed. I remember his constantly saying things like, "It's not my fault, who knew that the price of steel would get so high?" and "I bought the best engine company in the world, how could I fail? Who knew that my employees would take advantage of me? It's not my fault!"

But when I read this article, it reminded me of the extravagance they found in the plant as well as the end result.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-...n-plant-had-whistling-robots-spa-showers.html

The glass-and-metal building that Solyndra LLC began erecting alongside Interstate 880 in Fremont, California, in September 2009 was something the Silicon Valley area hadn’t seen in years: a new factory.

It wasn’t just any factory. When it was completed at an estimated cost of $733 million, including proceeds from a $535 million U.S. loan guarantee, it covered 300,000 square feet, the equivalent of five football fields. It had robots that whistled Disney tunes, spa-like showers with liquid-crystal displays of the water temperature, and glass-walled conference rooms.

“The new building is like the Taj Mahal,” John Pierce, 54, a San Jose resident who worked as a facilities manager at Solyndra, said in an interview.

More at link...
 
I'm sure that the robots that whistled Disney tunes were the only reason that they lasted as long as they had... If they hadn't had those they would have failed so much sooner. I mean, it's not their fault! Who knew that sand would become so cheap?

;)
 
Who knew China would provide 20 times the subsidies to panel manufacturers than the U.S.?

http://mobile.bloomberg.com/news/2011-09-28/solar-panel-imports-from-china-said-to-face-u-s-industry-trade-complaint?category=%2F

Solar-Panel Imports From China Said to Face U.S. Trade Complaint
By Mark Drajem and William McQuillen

Click 'Queue' to read later


Solar manufacturers including a unit of SolarWorld AG (SWV) are preparing a U.S. trade complaint against China, as they seek to counter low-cost, subsidized imports, according to people familiar with the matter.

The case, which would be filed at the Department of Commerce and the U.S. International Trade Commission in Washington, would be one of the largest targeting China, with political implications as both nations race to develop clean- energy technologies.
The companies say that China’s subsidies to solar companies violate global trade rules and provide those manufacturers with an unfair advantage, according to the people, who spoke yesterday on condition of anonymity because no complaint has yet been filed.
“We are actively conversing with our federal contacts in seeking help on how to prevent China from decimating another U.S. industry,” Ben Santarris, a spokesman for SolarWorld Industries America Inc. in Hillsboro, Oregon, said in an interview. He declined to discuss a possible filing.
In the first seven months of this year, China shipped $1.4 billion of solar panels to the U.S., more than the $1.2 billion of panels it sent in all of 2010, according to U.S. International Trade Commission data. Imports from South Korea, the Philippines and India also jumped.
The collapse this month of Solyndra LLC, a California maker of solar panels that had $535 million in U.S. loan guarantees, has renewed demands from U.S. lawmakers and union leaders that the Obama administration pursue unfair-trade complaints against China for out-sized subsidies to its clean-energy companies.
China’s Position
“The environment-friendly green-technology policies introduced by the Chinese government are for the purpose of energy protection and ensuring sustainable development,” Wang Baodong, the spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, said in October.
The volume of imports from China sped up as prices fell. China sent more solar panels to the U.S. in July of this year than in all of 2010, according to U.S. Department of Commerce data supplied by SolarWorld.
“The American solar industry is facing unparalleled challenges, and without the leadership of your administration this industry may disappear,” Senator Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, said in a Sept. 8 letter urging President Barack Obama to initiate a countervailing duty case against imports from China or to file a case at the World Trade Organization.
Credit Provided
China provided $30 billion in credit to its biggest solar manufacturers last year, about 20 times the U.S. effort, Jonathan Silver, executive director of the Energy Department’s loan program, told a congressional panel Sept. 14.
SolarWorld Industries America, which is lobbying lawmakers such as Wyden to help protect its 1,000 jobs in Oregon, is owned by SolarWorld AG of Bonn, the biggest German maker of solar modules. The company said Sept. 2 that it was cutting almost 200 jobs at its facility in Camarillo, California.
“There is no cost advantage in China,” Santarris said. “But it is difficult for a Western company to compete with a centrally planned economy in China.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Mark Drajem in Washington at mdrajem@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Larry Liebert at lliebert@bloomberg.net
 
Return of Dune said:
Who knew China would provide 20 times the subsidies to panel manufacturers than the U.S.?
Click to expand...

The problem is "we should have known"......we created the monster....
just as we have given birth to a new Egypt, a new Lybia, a new Iran and maybe a new Palestine,.... and after we tire of throwing money down the blackholes of Afghanistan and Pakistan, we can add them to list of monsters we've created......
 
Return of Dune said:
Who knew China would provide 20 times the subsidies to panel manufacturers than the U.S.?

http://mobile.bloomberg.com/news/2011-09-28/solar-panel-imports-from-china-said-to-face-u-s-industry-trade-complaint?category=%2F

Solar-Panel Imports From China Said to Face U.S. Trade Complaint
By Mark Drajem and William McQuillen

Click 'Queue' to read later


Solar manufacturers including a unit of SolarWorld AG (SWV) are preparing a U.S. trade complaint against China, as they seek to counter low-cost, subsidized imports, according to people familiar with the matter.

The case, which would be filed at the Department of Commerce and the U.S. International Trade Commission in Washington, would be one of the largest targeting China, with political implications as both nations race to develop clean- energy technologies.
The companies say that China’s subsidies to solar companies violate global trade rules and provide those manufacturers with an unfair advantage, according to the people, who spoke yesterday on condition of anonymity because no complaint has yet been filed.
“We are actively conversing with our federal contacts in seeking help on how to prevent China from decimating another U.S. industry,” Ben Santarris, a spokesman for SolarWorld Industries America Inc. in Hillsboro, Oregon, said in an interview. He declined to discuss a possible filing.
In the first seven months of this year, China shipped $1.4 billion of solar panels to the U.S., more than the $1.2 billion of panels it sent in all of 2010, according to U.S. International Trade Commission data. Imports from South Korea, the Philippines and India also jumped.
The collapse this month of Solyndra LLC, a California maker of solar panels that had $535 million in U.S. loan guarantees, has renewed demands from U.S. lawmakers and union leaders that the Obama administration pursue unfair-trade complaints against China for out-sized subsidies to its clean-energy companies.
China’s Position
“The environment-friendly green-technology policies introduced by the Chinese government are for the purpose of energy protection and ensuring sustainable development,” Wang Baodong, the spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, said in October.
The volume of imports from China sped up as prices fell. China sent more solar panels to the U.S. in July of this year than in all of 2010, according to U.S. Department of Commerce data supplied by SolarWorld.
“The American solar industry is facing unparalleled challenges, and without the leadership of your administration this industry may disappear,” Senator Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, said in a Sept. 8 letter urging President Barack Obama to initiate a countervailing duty case against imports from China or to file a case at the World Trade Organization.
Credit Provided
China provided $30 billion in credit to its biggest solar manufacturers last year, about 20 times the U.S. effort, Jonathan Silver, executive director of the Energy Department’s loan program, told a congressional panel Sept. 14.
SolarWorld Industries America, which is lobbying lawmakers such as Wyden to help protect its 1,000 jobs in Oregon, is owned by SolarWorld AG of Bonn, the biggest German maker of solar modules. The company said Sept. 2 that it was cutting almost 200 jobs at its facility in Camarillo, California.
“There is no cost advantage in China,” Santarris said. “But it is difficult for a Western company to compete with a centrally planned economy in China.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Mark Drajem in Washington at mdrajem@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Larry Liebert at lliebert@bloomberg.net
Click to expand...
Evergreen Solar also went bankrupt due to third world competition in which third world nations subsidized the solar panel industry and fxied labor costs. Both of which are illegal in the US.
 
Superfreak said:
I was mocking the fact that they built the massive factory in one of the priciest real estate areas in the area.
Click to expand...

I notice that he spoke nothing about the showers... Which is, quite literally, the thing which reminds me most about Atlas Shrugged. Well, that and the constant, "Who could have known? It's not my fault!" excuses...
 
Damocles said:
I notice that he spoke nothing about the showers... Which is, quite literally, the thing which reminds me most about Atlas Shrugged. Well, that and the constant, "Who could have known? It's not my fault!" excuses...
Click to expand...

I notice you spoke nothing about China's subsidies being 20 times larger than the U.S.
 
Return of Dune said:
I notice you spoke nothing about China's subsidies being 20 times larger than the U.S.
Click to expand...

Who could have known? Interesting how the Administration continues to promote "most favored nation" trade status...

who could have known? The Bush Administration dudes who predicted they would run out of money by September 2011 (what month is it? What year?) It seems that there are some people who "could have known"... Just not ideologues who really, really want to believe really, really hard.

Have any more excuses for this kind of fail? Aren't you glad they've given more loans to two more companies that are competing in that exact same market? Who could have known? Will they be crying to me later about this same thing?
 
Damocles said:
Who could have known? Interesting how the Administration continues to promote "most favored nation" trade status...

who could have known? The Bush Administration dudes who predicted they would run out of money by September 2011 (what month is it? What year?) It seems that there are some people who "could have known"... Just not ideologues who really, really want to believe really, really hard.

Have any more excuses for this kind of fail? Aren't you glad they've given more loans to two more companies that are competing in that exact same market? Who could have known? Will they be crying to me later about this same thing?
Click to expand...

So you are good with US subsidising only 5% of the rate of China, and losing market share and jobs to China?
 
Return of Dune said:
So you are good with US subsidising only 5% of the rate of China, and losing market share and jobs to China?
Click to expand...

China is only tangential to this. That they have the wherewithal to do the same for less, is not the US taxpayers problem regarding loan guarantees.
 
Return of Dune said:
So you are good with US subsidising only 5% of the rate of China, and losing market share and jobs to China?
Click to expand...

The US should not subsidize anything....they should tax the shit out of Chinese imports of these items and others that fit the circumstances....the same should go to every country that breaks the rules of free trade ....
 
Return of Dune said:
Unfair trade practices are not our problem?
Click to expand...

Again, why are you asking me? It's your guy talking them up and continuing the "most favored" status... They tariff our chickens too, cutting off 300,000 or so jobs that used to exist sending chickens to China for them to eat.
 
Damocles said:
Again, why are you asking me? It's your guy talking them up and continuing the "most favored" status... They tariff our chickens too, cutting off 300,000 or so jobs that used to exist sending chickens to China for them to eat.
Click to expand...

First of all, I was asking Annie, but since you apparently consider this site an extension of yourself (which is pretty cool);

Are you saying you support protectionist trade policies?
 
Return of Dune said:
First of all, I was asking Annie, but since you apparently consider this site an extension of yourself (which is pretty cool);

Are you saying you support protectionist trade policies?
Click to expand...

I am saying that you are complaining about how they couldn't have known, yet the Bush Admin dudes flat said what happened 2 years before it did and said this was a risky venture and not to play with Solyndra...

Saying that nobody could have known is BS. Somebody knew, warned, and was ignored.

They wasted our money on whistling robots that they were warned would not be necessary in a little more than 2 years... They wasted our money on real estate in one of the most expensive markets that exist in the world, even though it was known they would fail, and predicted that the failure would come pretty much exactly when it happened.

Then you try to blame others for their failure, using the very excuses that I listed at the beginning... "Who could have known?"

First, there are always unforeseen issues for every new start business out there. Who could have known? Well, every successful business alive.

Second, it was predicted, extremely accurately, somebody knew, including those who got the loans.

When the Bush Admin started slowing down the process requesting a deeper look they started trying to immediately get them to do it without any checks fearing the next administration would reject this deal... Later e-mails flat state that their business plan made no sense, one said: to sell for $3 what took them $6 to make wasn't a viable plan... They then projected the failure of the company incredibly accurately while recommending that the government not get into this risky venture. Only an ideologue would waste time trying to hand these people excuses. It was a bad venture from the start.

Who could have known that sand would get so cheap? Well, apparently, even the most inept Administration ever was able to tell...
 
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