An Amazing Coincidence

On Friday, The Washington Free Beacon reported that a company owned by a man who gave generously to the Biden campaign has received a $500 million government loan to build a manufacturing facility in India. Why is the government giving out loans to build manufacturing facilities in India instead of in America? Isn’t it an incredible coincidence that a large donor to the Biden campaign receives a $500 million government loan?

The article reports:

The U.S. International Development Finance Corporation granted the loan to First Solar, which is owned by billionaire Walmart heir Lukas Walton, to build a solar module plant in India. Walton contributed over $300,000 to President Joe Biden’s campaign last year, and over $100,000 to the Democratic National Committee, according to campaign finance records.

The loan to First Solar is the “largest single debt financing transaction” issued by the DFC, the agency announced this week. The DFC said the investment in the India project will “promote DFC’s commitment to diversifying supply chains,” following demands from lawmakers that the agency avoid funding any solar projects connected to forced labor in China.

Ethics watchdogs said the loan raises questions about whether First Solar’s political connections played a role in the DFC’s decision. The federal financing agency, which was formerly known as the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, has faced criticism in the past for funding projects linked to political donors. The loan also comes nine years after the Obama administration came under fire for approving $3 billion in loan guarantees to the same company—funding that Republican lawmakers alleged the company wasn’t qualified to receive.

The article concludes:

“The information currently accessible to the public raises the question of whether these companies received approval to use federal lands and taxpayer monies based not on the best value for the American people but the political clout of the recipients,” then-senator Jeff Sessions (R., Ala.), ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee, said at the time.

Although First Solar’s chairman testified to Congress that the company was “financially strong,” the business was forced to furlough half of its employees at its solar plant near Los Angeles weeks later.

Last year, First Solar paid $350 million to settle a shareholder lawsuit brought by two United Kingdom pension funds, which claimed the company inflated its stock price and misled investors about its finances.

The article does mention that the manufacturing facility is being built in India in order to create a supply chains that do not utilize forced labor. However, that does not answer the question as to why the plant was not built in America.

Another Taxpayer Subsidized Solar Energy Company Goes Under

Today’s Daily Caller posted an article about Abound Solar, a Colorado green-energy firm that has filed for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy.

The article reports:

The U.S. Department of Energy awarded Abound Solar a $400 million loan guarantee in December 2010, funds that the then-three-year-old startup said it would use to compete with solar panel industry leader First Solar.

The company spent $535 million in loans guaranteed by the federal government before it failed. The article goes on to explain that Abound Solar was technically behind its competitors in the solar industry. Subsidizing inferior technology does not improve its quality, and it interferes with the ability of the free market to let the best technology prevail.

The best stimulus program would have been to give all taxpayers half of their income tax back! That would have stimulated the economy.

Enhanced by Zemanta