"$1.3 billion in ‘clean energy’ subsidies produce 288 permanent jobs, quadruple cost of electricity in Nevada
Reid-sponsored National Clean Energy Summit pushes more subsidies as key to Nevada’s future"
Well, of course he does.
Where did that stimulus money go?
Here's the story:
As U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid prepares to host his fifth annual National Clean Energy Summit on Aug. 7, a Nevada Journal examination of Nevada’s renewable energy sector shows that over $1.3 billion in federal funds funneled into geothermal, solar and wind projects since 2009 has yielded and is projected to yield just 288 permanent, full-time jobs.
That’s an initial cost of over $4.6 million per job.
Despite this, Sen. Reid continues to hype Nevada as the “Saudi Arabia of renewable energy,” even though the renewable energy subsidized with federal dollars and mandated under Nevada’s Renewable Portfolio Standard costs consumers and NV Energy, Nevada’s publicly regulated utility company, up to four times as much as fossil fuels, such as natural gas.
Even with these government-granted advantages, the few clean-energy jobs in the state of Nevada are still precarious.
Reid-backed geothermal company near bankruptcy
Auditors for Nevada Geothermal Power, a federally subsidized green-energy firm in Nevada, are raising questions about whether that firm is going to fail.
As of last October, Nevada Geothermal Power had 22 employees in Nevada, and, according to the New York Times, had received $145 million in federal subsidies — composed of a loan guarantee of nearly $79 million for its Blue Mountain geothermal project and at least $66 million in grants to the company itself.
The Times called the company a “politically connected clean energy start-up that has relied heavily on an Obama administration loan guarantee,” and said it “… is now facing financial turmoil.”
Today, three quarters later, the latest company audit again questions the “company’s ability to continue as a going concern.”
The firm’s survival, wrote auditors on March 31, will depend “on its available cash and its ability to continue to raise funds….”
The Times found similarities between the Obama administration’s support for “Solyndra, the now-famous California solar company,” and Sen. Reid’s support of Nevada Geothermal.
Sen. Reid, the story said, “has taken the nascent geothermal industry under his wing, pressuring the Department of Interior to move more quickly on applications to build clean energy projects on federally owned land and urging other member of Congress to expand federal tax incentives to help build geothermal plants, benefits that Nevada Geothermal has taken advantage of.”
The most recent “clean energy” company failure in Nevada occurred three weeks ago when Amonix, a North Las Vegas solar manufacturing plant that had received more than $20 million in federal tax credits and grants, closed after only 14 months of operation.
Hailed upon its opening by Sen. Reid, U.S. Rep. Shelley Berkley and Gov. Brian Sandoval, the 214,000-square-foot Amonix facility had, at its height, employed some 700 individuals. In 2010, even President Barack Obama praised the Amonix plant, saying the “stimulus” tax credits it received had made an “extraordinary impact.”
Today, the company is bankrupt.
Large handouts, few employees
Even the renewable-energy projects that aren’t yet facing bankruptcy aren’t doing much to help reduce Nevada’s 11.6 percent unemployment rate. That’s because most solar photovoltaic plants — plants that convert solar radiation from the sun into electricity — in Nevada employee very few full-time employees.
The Silver State North solar plant, for example, located near Primm, employs only two full-time employees, while the Copper Mountain solar plant in Boulder City employs only five. Combined, these plants have received, or are eligible to receive, up to $92 million in federal loans and subsidies. Copper Mountain is also eligible to received $12 million in tax rebates from the State of Nevada.
That means each supposedly permanent job starts out costing taxpayers about $14.85 million.
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