They Didn’t Build That: Another Taxpayer-Funded ‘Green’ Energy Project Goes Belly up
- Posted on July 18, 2012 at 7:34pm by
Becket Adams
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After being open for only 14 months, Amonix has been forced to close its heavily-subsidized 214,000-square-foot facility in North Las Vegas, the Las Vegas Review Journal’s Hubble Smith reports.
“The company today began selling equipment, from automated tooling systems to robotic welding cells,” Smith adds.
Really? That’s so weird! We clearly remember the president telling us what a great idea it was to invest in this company:
A solar panel company — a solar power company called Amonix received a roughly $6 million tax credit for a new facility they’re building in the Las Vegas area, a tax credit they were able to match with roughly $12 million in private capital.
The only problem we have is these credits were working so well, there aren’t enough tax credits to go around. When we announced the program last year, it was such a success we received 500 applications requesting over $8 billion in tax credits, but we only had $2.3 billion to invest.
We’re just going to go ahead and say it: we think maybe — just maybe — you invested in the wrong company, Mr. President.
“A designer and manufacturer of concentrated photovoltaic solar power systems, Amonix received $6 million in federal tax credits and a $15.6 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy [emphases added],” Smith reports.
But that’s not all!
The plant has actually been “idle” since May 1, according to Rene Kenerly, a former Amonix employee (yeah, he was laid off), but we’re just now finding out about it.
At one point, the plant employed about 700 employees working three shifts a day to produce solar panels for a Colorado client, he told the Las Vegas Review Journal.
“I don’t think they had a lot of training,” Kenerly said. “There were a lot of quality issues. A lot of stuff was coming back because it had some functionality issues.”
Of course, as is the case with most of these federally-subsidized “green” energy projects, the plant was hailed a success by several politicians.
“Nevada Sen. Harry Reid, U.S. Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., and Gov. Brian Sandoval were among the political leaders who lauded the company when it announced it would start making solar cells in the Golden Triangle Industrial Park,” Smith reports.
But the company’s fortunes didn’t last long. In January, the company laid off 200 workers (around the same time the company’s CEO died in a plane crash).
(Related: Another Solar Power Company Lays off Hundreds of Workers)
“We are retooling to redeploy our next generation utility-scale CPV (concentrated photovoltaic) solar power system,” company spokeswoman Kelly Rice wrote in an e-mail at that time.
“During this time, we will ramp down our facility to about 100 jobs, and will ramp back up based on the manufacturing build plan in second half of 2012,” the email added.
Smith’s report continues:
A hand-written sign posted at the shuttered plant Wednesday morning gave telephone numbers in California and Las Vegas for deliveries and inquiries. Amonix had a five-year lease on the site.
The North Las Vehas plant was a joint venture with Singapore’s Flextronics Industrial. Amonix founder and chairman Vahan Garboushian had estimated capital investment of $15 million in the plant, including equipment, construction and tenant improvements.
And as a final insult, Mitchell Truman, president of Pan Western, claims his company is owed approximately $60,000 for “shipping costs” related to Amonix and its partner, Cogentrics.
“I’ll never see that money,” Truman said.
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Comments (69)
davetrav
Posted on July 18, 2012 at 8:47pmScore yet another failure for the great one, all on the taxpayer backs. I hope there is alot of your and independent voters reading this that were going to vote for Obama. All you people will be paying these losses —-HOW CAN YOU EVEN THINK ABOUT VOTING OBAMA. He should be runout of town on a rail.
Report Post »dmerwin
Posted on July 18, 2012 at 9:53pmWe need an accounting of ALL the green energy companies that we funded and a monthly financial report until they all claim bankruptcy. Further, we need to know if ANY of their employees pay taxes in another country. And we need to have that bonehead Chu tell us why the admin thought this was a good idea. The media needs to highlight this issue EVERY monday until November and tell the “recipient class” that the government chose to do this over give you a job or more benefits.
Report Post »db321
Posted on July 18, 2012 at 11:57pmChalk another one up for the Reverse Midas Touch and Chief.
Report Post »poorrichard09
Posted on July 19, 2012 at 8:08amHey, he’s “betting on America” with OUR money-and losing ever time.
Report Post »JRook
Posted on July 19, 2012 at 9:13am@davetrav I’ll be swayed when you do some research rather than rant. And tell me how many $billions Haliburton received for services provided in Iraq and in the rebuilding. And how much of that was wasted. Take the time to see the movie “The Selling of Iraq”. If your gonna be upset about wasteful government spending then look at the whole picture. But of course honesty is a rare commodity isn’t it.
Report Post »Lothmar
Posted on July 19, 2012 at 11:45am@poorrichard – Well maybe but you have to look at those odds! All it takes is one win and we might be a portion of the way back toward breaking even…
Report Post »Carlinpa
Posted on July 18, 2012 at 8:44pmWait I know, maybe they didn’t have enough roads…. that’s it… they needed more roads.. yup… someone tell Obama..
Report Post »sooner12
Posted on July 18, 2012 at 9:49pmHA Ha Ha. Good one.
Report Post »dublinthewagons
Posted on July 18, 2012 at 8:42pmthat evil BA in capital, invests its own money and makes money.
Report Post »President Obama invests our money and loses it all. Barack Madoff
MBA
Posted on July 18, 2012 at 8:39pmthese criminals don’t have to build anything with obamy giving them all that tax payer money. Built in ceo salary and bonus and a kickback for obamy. Then they can go about of business and be set for life. How stupid is congress for letting obamy stay in his position?
Report Post »RetiredAmericanNavyTaxpayer
Posted on July 18, 2012 at 9:26pmHe’s still here because the Democrats control the US Senate, the part of congress that votes on impeachment.
Report Post »ARSILHOUETTE
Posted on July 19, 2012 at 10:40amIt is the House of Representatives that has the sole power to impeach…It is basicilly like a Grand Jury indictment….and you are right, in a way, the Senate is the only one who can remove a government official who has been impeached….look at Bill Clinton….impeached but not removed….
Report Post »Carlinpa
Posted on July 18, 2012 at 8:24pmSo, is there going to be a video on the 700 employees who were fired, like the one attacking Romney? At this point you could make a full length feature film on all the FAILURES of this administration and the BILLIONS of our tax dollars being flushed down the toilet. They could call it “ Fast and Feckless”
Report Post »justangry
Posted on July 18, 2012 at 8:09pmOne thing to be said there will be a huge demand for repo workers.
Report Post »Texan4ever
Posted on July 18, 2012 at 8:06pmWake up obama foes!! Make easy to read lists of all the ways this corrupt administration has done things like this and amounts of taxpayer monies wasted. People need to see this clearly and succinctly to see the whole picture. Just do it–people will be shocked.
Report Post »donh2
Posted on July 18, 2012 at 8:05pmAmo = spanish for “ I love ”….Nix = God of darkness night…
Report Post »AmOnix logo has a sun inside the O but means “ I love darkness ”…This inverted moral oxymoron is a sign of Satanism. The company was just a fake shell front funding brothers in a progressive luciferian cult. Who knows what was really going on inside the day to day operations…hours of Yoga meditation…Scientology indoctrinations….thelema dark matter experiments…reviving the nazi Die Glocke project……or filming of gay porn….but surely there was no manufacturing of any real solar products for market resale.
donh2
Posted on July 18, 2012 at 8:49pm$20 million and they built the Unicursed – Qabalistic Time Machine..> http://youtu.be/f-R9ZCZgd9I
Report Post »ricckky
Posted on July 18, 2012 at 8:03pmMy God Dear Lord–What shall we do with this Satin in office—This man and his devil wife is destroying America—What should we do???-Let me know all you LIBS!!!!
Report Post »PERSONONAMISSION
Posted on July 18, 2012 at 8:01pmhow do you spell money laundering.
Report Post »progressiveslayer
Posted on July 18, 2012 at 9:02pmBarrack Hussein Obama (common Christian name) Barry Soetero or whatever alias the Marxist heathen has used over the years.
Report Post »tothepoint
Posted on July 18, 2012 at 8:00pmQuestion: Which of Obama’s supporters benefitted from Obama giving our $ to this company?
Report Post »MeteoricLimbo
Posted on July 18, 2012 at 7:59pmSell us their Lord and Promise the wind.
Report Post »wordweaver
Posted on July 18, 2012 at 7:57pmOur government sucks at investing.
Report Post »NOT-A-MUSHROOM
Posted on July 18, 2012 at 7:57pmIt would be more stimulitive to the economy if he just started dumping Obama cash from planes.
Report Post »What_Did_I_Miss
Posted on July 18, 2012 at 11:37pmIt may not go to Obama supporters if you just throw it out. This is directed cash flow. This is a money laundering scheme. They are raiding the treasury, giving money to their friends and ultimately themselves.
Report Post »tothepoint
Posted on July 18, 2012 at 7:57pmAnd Obama wastes yet more hard-earned taxpayer money on irrational green companies.
Report Post »RJJinGadsden
Posted on July 18, 2012 at 8:21pmThe only thing even remotely green with companies are the green backs that are pumped into them. The only thing coming back from the recipients is a wink and a nod, along with some major donations to 0′s war chest.
Report Post »kaydeebeau
Posted on July 18, 2012 at 7:51pmHow does a company that has been in existance less than 3 years already need to re-tool?
Report Post »RLTW
Posted on July 18, 2012 at 8:02pmIt’s called laundering money
Report Post »RLTW
Posted on July 18, 2012 at 8:06pmThink about it, the Mob (criminals) set up a false front in order to create legitimacy, launder money then put the money to whatever ends desired.
You know like communism
Report Post »The-Monk
Posted on July 18, 2012 at 7:51pmAMONIX
American’s MONey In eXchange for political contributions. : (
Report Post »Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra
Posted on July 18, 2012 at 8:01pmAmerican
Report Post »Money
Obama
Needs
Is
X-rated
TheEDGE
Posted on July 18, 2012 at 7:50pmGreen energy, green jobs. More elusive than little green men.
Report Post »historyguy48
Posted on July 18, 2012 at 7:49pmComrades, Dear Leader is trying to give all of you jobs (wails of crying in the background) but that evil Geo. Bush keeps stopping him from being successful!
Report Post »But thats okay because evil companies like Bain Capital denied these fine, wonderful, bundlers, er, I mean people, a loan so I gave them one so they could hire Americans to work in America building American products!
just because they paid themselve huge salaries and closed down the plant after making themselves filthy stinking rich you must realize that I tried because I care!
I am just soooo caring towards the Middle Class that tears form in my eyes when I think about how much more money, I mean campaign donations, I could have gotten from these delightful ex-entrepreneers!
Don’t worry about the spelling errors, Communists just aren’t good with evil capitalist terms.
RJJinGadsden
Posted on July 18, 2012 at 8:26pmLOL, as Rush pointed out a couple of weeks ago. Should 0bama win a 2nd term, we’ll have four more years of “It‘s Bush’s fault”
Report Post »historyguy48
Posted on July 19, 2012 at 7:42amComrade Rush thinks its still politics as usual. While I love Rush, on this he is dead wrong! This is for all the marbles! Either we do what it is necessary to do, or we die as a country, and a lot of us will die in the “re-education camps” that are standard format when Communists take over.
Report Post »Personally, I don’t think America has the necessary political will to protect itself so I have made my peace with God because I do know what is coming!
progressiveslayer
Posted on July 18, 2012 at 7:49pmThis is shocking news another so called ‘green’ energy company goes bankrupt? The Marxist POS continues his war on the coal industry,U.S constitution and taxpayers,fire the Marxist POS and try to correct the damage.
Report Post »hawkeyez
Posted on July 18, 2012 at 7:48pmObama: Your business success? Someone else did that for you. But I killed Osoma BinLaden.
Report Post »progressiveslayer
Posted on July 18, 2012 at 7:51pmThe shape this country‘s in that’s all on the Marxist POS, he screwed us.
Report Post »thibx
Posted on July 18, 2012 at 7:48pmthis is oboma and democrats jobs plan. we can’t take anymore. communist socialist have to be thrown out of office all of them. ROMNEY 2012
Report Post »TSUNAMI-22
Posted on July 18, 2012 at 7:42pmWhat about Nevada Geothermal. The stock went from $.03 to $1.15 and then they received federal subsidies.
Guess where they are now? What’s up Harry Reid?
http://stockcharts.com/h-sc/ui Type NGLPF, and then select a 3 year chart.
Report Post »HotFixIt
Posted on July 18, 2012 at 7:42pm“Another one bites the dust”… I can hear the music…. and where is the MSM?
Report Post »RJJinGadsden
Posted on July 18, 2012 at 8:30pmhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqyUAtzS_6M
Report Post »marcus_arealius
Posted on July 18, 2012 at 7:40pmTax payers should be given access to these belly up outfits and take back stuff equal to our tax, plus interest. I could use a nice plasma torch.
Report Post »DesdemonasCrew
Posted on July 18, 2012 at 7:52pmI was thinking the same thing!
Report Post »There must not have been enough roads and bridges nearby. After all, that’s what the Oblamer in Chief says.