Friday, December 05, 2014

Department of Energy (DOE) Cooks the Books : Progressives (WH) Run the Show

This is not a new phenomenon for renewable energy projects with connection to the DOE,  but in light of my last post on how a solar plant lost money and it can't  repay it's federal loan back because it couldn't generate enough energy due to bad weather, makes the case for reforming the Department of Energy. Better yet, close down the DOE as a total waste of money.

This won't happen, of course, as those getting loans for solar and wind energy production are progressive democrat bundlers for Mr Obama and his party which returns $millions of tax dollars back from these failed adventures into the campaign coffers of the democrat party.

Little wonder then 24 of the 26 largest loans made by the DOE to renewable energy adventures have failed and it didn't go unnoticed that many of those managed these solar failures donated millions to the democrats were also the same people that got the loans.

Does anyone care about all of the failures? It seems it's just politics as usual for the democrats and thereby acceptable.

Department of Energy Falsely Claims Loan Profits
Source: Donald Marron, "Spin Alert: DOE loans are losing money, not making profits," Urban Institute, November 17, 2014.

November 19, 2014

The Department of Energy has just released a report that seems to indicate that its clean energy loans have been profitable. But that's not at all true, writes Donald Marron, director of economic policy initiatives at the Urban Institute. According to Marron, the Department of Energy (DOE) is ignoring borrowing costs in order to show inflated figures.

The report shows the DOE as having earned $810 million in interest while losing $780 million on the loans -- a $30 million profit. The problem, says Marron, is that the $810 million in interest does not take into account the Treasury's borrowing costs, as the Treasury first borrowed money (with interest) in order to make loans to the energy companies at very low interest rates. Taking into account those borrowing costs, Marron says that taxpayer losses on the loans are likely in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Similarly, the report says that the loan program is expecting $5 billion in interest payments. But that $5 billion is not a profit, says Marron -- it is only interest payments, without accounting for borrowing costs or possible defaults on the loans.
 

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