In a must-read editorial yesterday, The Wall Street Journal writes, “President Obama keeps pushing the (Warren) Buffett rule that nobody making more than $1 million a year should pay less than 30% in taxes. He’d do better by the economy if he adopted a Solyndra Rule, in which no company touting unproven and expensive technology should receive millions in taxpayer subsidies. After the demise of Solyndra (with its $535 million loan guarantee) and Beacon Power ($43 million loan guarantee), last week saw the bankruptcy of Indiana-based lithium-ion battery maker Ener1. In 2009 an Ener1 subsidiary was awarded a grant worth up to $118 billion from the Energy Department, with Vice President Joe Biden touring and touting its factory a year ago. Like Solyndra, Ener1 was a foolhardy bet for taxpayer cash. Founded in 2002, Ener1 had not turned a profit by the time of its grant and has proceeded to hemorrhage the $55 million of the DOE money it has received to date. Its losses in fiscal 2010 were $165 million.”

Yet Ener1 isn’t even the latest problem for a so-called “green energy” company that received millions in taxpayer dollars from the Obama administration. The Las Vegas Sun reported last week, “Just seven months after California-based solar power company Amonix Inc. opened its largest manufacturing plant, in North Las Vegas, the company’s contractor has laid off nearly two-thirds of its workforce. Flextronics Industrial, the Singapore solar panel manufacturer that partnered with Amonix to staff the new $18 million, 214,000-square-foot plant, laid off about 200 of its 300-plus employees Tuesday. . . . Amonix received a $5.9 million investment tax credit through the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act in 2010, and another $12 million in private capital helped finance the plant.”

The WSJ adds, “Mr. Obama is undeterred. In last week’s speech, he defended his taxpayer ‘investments’ in private commercial companies, noting that ‘some technologies don’t pan out, some companies fail.’” He would know. Though perhaps if Mr. Obama weren’t throwing hundreds of millions down the green sinkhole, he wouldn’t have to target the nation’s real job creators for higher taxes to foot his losses.”

Related:

Dems Block Disaster Aid To Protect Green Energy Loan Programs Like Solyndra While Solyndra Execs Take The 5th‏

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