"It profits me but little that a vigilant authority always protects the tranquillity of my pleasures and constantly averts all dangers from my path, without my care or concern, if this same authority is the absolute master of my liberty and my life."

--Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America

Saturday, June 30, 2012

A Likely Story

And by that I mean:  if a business needs government subsidy, the reason is almost inevitably that it cannot get private investors to invest in it; and the reason for that is almost inevitably that its products are not marketable at a profit.   So, when government subsidizes something -- in this case another solar energy company -- it's a very likely story that the business will end up going belly up and the taxpayers will end up eating the loss:

In a decision that will surprise few energy observers, Abound Solar, a Loveland, Colorado-based maker of thin-film cadmium telluride solar modules has announced it will file for bankruptcy protection and suspend its operation. It’s the latest failure of an energy company that had received funding under the Department of Energy’s loan program. 

Although Abound had received a $400 million DOE loan guarantee for building solar-panel manufacturing in Colorado, the company says it has used only $70 million of the funding and has not used any DOE funds since August 2011.

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