Oregon wave energy stalls off the coast of Reedsport

Last September, with great fanfare, Ocean Power Technologies began construction on America's first wave-powered utility. Holding the first - and only - wave energy permit  from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, OPT had planned to deploy a test buoy off the coast of Reedsport by spring.

 But a year after the permit, regulatory and technical difficulties have all but halted the project. Federal regulators notified the company earlier this year it had violated the license after failing to file a variety of plans and assessments.

All that remains in the water are pieces of a single anchoring system on the ocean floor. State officials have told the New Jersey company to remove them by month's end.

Read more at Oregon Livehttp://www.oregonlive.com/environment/index.ssf/2013/08/oregon_wave_energy_stalls_off.html Read More......

Your green energy failure of the day: VPG of Michigan

Another one of the Energy Department’s taxpayer-financed “investments” just went belly-up.  This one died very quietly, without making a formal announcement, but USA Today noticed:

A Michigan maker of vans for the disabled that received a $50-million Energy Department loan has quietly ceased operation and laid off its staff.
Vehicle Production Group, or VPG, stopped operations after finances dipped below the minimum threshold required by the government as a condition of the loan, says its former CEO, John Walsh. Though about 100 staff were laid off and its offices shuttered, it has not filed for bankruptcy reorganization.

Read more at Human Events

(Hat tip: KimR) Read More......

Oregon prepares to foreclose on SoloPower as solar startup misses loan payment

Oregon officials are preparing to foreclose on SoloPower Inc. after the government-backed startup missed a loan payment this week in the latest setback for the state's reeling green-energy sector.   SoloPower, which is still scrambling to revive its struggling North Portland plant, missed a $50,800 payment Wednesday on a $10 million loan from the Oregon Energy Department, an agency spokeswoman said Friday.   If the San Jose, Calif., company defaults, Portland taxpayers could be out $5 million, because the city guaranteed half the loan last year in wooing the plant away from Wilsonville.

Read more at the Oregonian Read More......

Germany’s Green Energy Policy Hit Households Hard

Many people in Germany are no longer able to pay their electricity bills. Skyrocketing electricity prices are making electricity unaffordable for a large number of Germans. The past year over 600,000 households had their power switched off in Germany because they can’t afford the skyrocketing electric bills.(1)

Read more at Canada Free Press Read More......

Inhofe delivers Senate floor takedown of military 'green' agenda

The Obama administration is determined to gut the U.S. military in order to fund a far-left environmental agenda, Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) said during an extended address on the Senate floor this week.

Inhofe spoke to Human Events last week about his concern that U.S. military leaders had proposed spending billions on green energy measures and expensive biofuels while implementing slashing cuts on equipment and key functions, and promised to bring attention to the Defense Department’s promotion of the president’s liberal goals.

Read more at Human Events Read More......

White House Refuses to Turn Over Internal Solyndra Documents

10/17/2011 - As investigation reveals those closest to President Obama were warned about the Solyndra loan, White House violates own transparency pledge

WASHINGTON, DC – Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) and Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chairman Cliff Stearns (R-FL) responded to the recent letter from White House Counsel Kathryn Ruemmler that the White House would not provide internal White House communications related to Solyndra. On October 5, 2011, the committee leaders requested the internal communications after recently produced documents revealed the President’s closest confidantes monitored the Solyndra loan. Read more at House Energy & Commerce Committee...

Read More......

A Quixotic Pursuit: Tilting at Green Windmills

WASHINGTON POST, 6/25/2009 by George F. Will (Hat tip: John H. Detweiler) - The Spanish professor is puzzled. Why, Gabriel Calzada wonders, is the U.S. president recommending that America emulate the Spanish model for creating "green jobs" in "alternative energy" even though Spain's unemployment rate is 18.1 percent -- more than double the European Union average -- partly because of spending on such jobs? Calzada, 36, an economics professor at Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, has produced a report that, if true, is inconvenient for the Obama administration's green agenda, and for some budget assumptions that are dependent upon it. Read more at the Washington Post... Read More......