[ExI] solargate: was RE: A Nobel laureate and climate change

[spike]

>... On Behalf Of BillK
Subject: Re: [ExI] A Nobel laureate and climate change

2011/9/18 john clark wrote:
>> ...And that's why wind farms and solar panel companies don't need huge
subsidies...

>...Solyndra failed, as you say, because they didn't reduce production costs
like other solar companies were doing... 

Solyndra did not reduce production costs, because they could not.  Read on
please.

>...I think all western governments decided to encourage investments in
renewable energy industries because private industry won't invest until they
see a near-term profit. Governments need renewable energy in the near future
and they don't want to wait until fuel is $20 USD per gallon...BillK

Hmmm, BillK, partially right but there is a huge important factor you are
not taking into account.  It's an America thing which I don't think applies
to Britain, so no criticism for missing this.  

No sane investor would have put money into Solyndra because their factory
was in a non-right-to-work state.  We already had a local solar panel
manufacturer, First Solar in Santa Clara, but it wisely located its factory
in neighboring Arizona, which is a right-to-work state where labor prices
are within reason.  In California, factory workers are forced to join the
union.  Unions drive up wages and costs.  Consequently, no sane investor
should ever put a dime into any company which has a production facility or
any labor-intensive operation in any non-right-to-work state.  In a
narrow-margin manufacturing enterprise, unions cause companies to fail
eventually.  They can do engineering in non-RTW states, but generally not
manufacturing.  They will lose money on every sale while trying to make it
up by increasing the number of sales.

The big scandal brewing in the US is that the fed already knew this
investment was a sure loser, but did it anyway.  This deal shines a
spotlight on the business incompetence of our current US government, and why
governments should not be picking winners and losers.  I predict this will
result in the current leading party's brutal slaughter in the elections a
year from now.  The alternative may be even worse than this crazy bunch.

Here's your map:

http://www.nrtw.org/rtws.htm

Invest only in these states in blue.  If the US government invests anywhere
outside those 22 blue states, they are using taxpayer money to buy votes.
The failure of any such enterprise is as inevitable as the sunrise.

spike

ps For our Jon Stewart fans, here is his hilarious take on it:

http://tpmlivewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/09/daily-show-on-solyndra-scan
dal-its-not-easy-being-green-video.php

{8^D