Abound Solar, the lucky winner of a $400 million tax dollars is going broke. Abound just announced layoffs of nearly 300 employees (70 percent of its work force, article HERE)

Not to different from Solyndra which got $535 million of taxypayer dollars in 2009 only to file for bankruptcy in Sept. 2011. 

Doesn’t seem that Government should be trying to pick winners does it? It gets even stranger with Wind Power.

“Over the past two decades, the US federal government has prosecuted hundreds of cases against oil and gas producers and electricity producers for violating some of America’s oldest wildlife-protection laws: the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and Eagle Protection Act. Despite laws that can result in a fine of up to $250,000 and imprisonment for two years, the Wind Industry has never been prosectued despite graphic examples of vastly more rare birds being killed by windmill projects. For example, last June, the Los Angeles Times reported that about 70 golden eagles are being killed per year by the wind turbines at Altamont Pass, about 20 miles east of Oakland, Calif. A 2008 study funded by the Alameda County Community Development Agency estimated that about 2,400 raptors, including burrowing owls, American kestrels, and red-tailed hawks—as well as about 7,500 other birds, nearly all of which are protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act—are being killed every year by the turbines at Altamont.”

Good heavens, seems there’s a double standard in effect for Wind Projects (odd enviromenalists would overlook this) and a giant sinkhole for tax dollars in Solar Panel Manufacturers.

Pictures of GOLDEN EAGLES THAT FACE EXTINCTION IN U.S. AS NUMBERS PLUMMET killed by windmills

“Part of an $11 million grant intended to provide business attire to 400 low-income job-seekers instead helped only two people, an audit of the city’s Department of Human Services has found.
The audit, conducted by the city’s auditor general for the period from July 2009 to September 2011, found the department failed to control the operations and finances of a boutique that was to provide the clothes.
The department did not safeguard grant funds or create an inventory for the clothing, the audit found.
[…]
“The DHS was only able to provide the auditors with two referral forms signed by two clients documenting that they received clothing from the boutique,” the audit said. “Eligible Detroiters are not being served with available clothing being stocked in the boutique.”

The department did not give a reason for not reaching the goal of providing 400 people with clothes.”

Detroit’s Department of Human Services must be a training ground for Department of Energy clean energy loan officers.

As rdbrewer pointed out at Ace of Spades, assuming the entire $11 million was earmarked for the job seeker “service center,” even if they met their goal of helping clothe 400 people in business attire, that would have still worked out to $27,500 per person. Where did they plan on taking these people to shop? Oscar de la Renta?

**Written by Doug Powers
Twitter @ThePowersThatBe

After Simon Burgess, 41 fell into the water when he suffered a seizure and no fewer than 25 members of the emergency services, including a press officer and a helicopter, descended on a 3½ft-deep model boating lake. Fire station watch manager Tony Nicholls arrived at the scene within five minutes but refused to try to rescue Mr Burgess because, he told the inquest, his crew’s ‘Level 1’ training only allowed them to go in the water up to their ankles. Even though they could all swim they waited for ‘specialists’ to arrive to retrieve his body. They had decided Mr Burgess must surely be dead because he had been in the water for ten minutes. Other rescue agencies believe people can survive submerged for much longer than ten minutes – some will still try resuscitation at 90 minutes. When a policeman decided to go in anyway, he was ordered not to. A paramedic was also told not to enter the water because he didn’t have the right ‘protective’ clothing and might be in breach of the Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations 1992.

The tragic incident made headlines around the world, held up as a shocking example of ludicrously risk-averse Britain. And it prompted a coroner to demand that fire, police and ambulance services improve training to prevent a repeat.

The incident happened despite  a previous reassurance from the Health and Safety Executive that firefighters would not face prosecution if they performed acts of heroism that break rules.

Mr Burgess could have been reached within two minutes of emergency crews arriving at the scene – as proved by our reporter who went into the lake and waded 25ft to the spot where his body had been floating.
Mr Burgess had been feeding swans from a plastic bag that blew into the lake. He went in to retrieve it and while he was in the water he had a fit and fell unconscious. Last week, Coroner David Horsley ruled his death was an accident on the balance of probabilities, but said there was a chance, ‘albeit a slim one’, he could have been saved had the emergency services intervened sooner.