Off The Solyndra Reservation With Scott Tipton

21 Comments

by: Colorado Pols

Recapping this weekend’s swing through the eastern part of his district, the Pueblo Chieftain’s Gayle Perez reports on the continuing foibles of embattled freshman Rep. Scott Tipton:

Tipton was in Pueblo Friday where he toured the Vestas plant and met with senior citizens as part of two-day Southern Colorado Tour that includes visits to several communities in the San Luis Valley…

He also visited the Cogentrix solar plant in northern Alamosa County, which was the beneficiary of a $90 million loan guarantee from the the U.S. Department of Energy.

Tipton was quick to criticize the work of that program with Solyndra, a California solar panel maker that received a much bigger guarantee and went bankrupt, costing taxpayers $535 million and raising the ire of congressional Republicans.

But he did say that because of financial reforms done by the previous Congress, capital was much harder to come by. “Government, if we’re going to be making those types of guarantees for some developing technologies that are going to be there, they can get it from the private sector,” he said. “We can maybe encourage that but it has to be done very judiciously.”

Catch that? It’s very subtle so you might miss it. Solyndra bad, Cogentrix (in Tipton’s district) maybe okay! Unfortunately, the conservative Independence Institute isn’t playing along:

In the shadow of the Solyndra bankruptcy scandal, the embattled Department of Energy (DOE) Loan Guarantee Program announced on September 9, a $90.6 million loan guarantee to Cogentrix Energy of Alamosa for a solar energy project…100 jobs is a bit optimistic. According to the DOE, the project will create or save 10 permanent jobs, which means the cost per job “created or saved” is $9.6 million. However, if we include the 75 temporary construction jobs, the cost per job is a mere $1,065,882.35.

Conservative budget “guru” Paul Ryan doesn’t leave Tipton much wiggle room either:

By picking winners and losers in the energy sector, the government-as-investor model distorts markets, weakens the rule of law, and fails to spur sustainable job creation. Instead of helping the economy, the story ends with taxpayers losing billions of dollars, successful companies losing their competitive advantage, and workers losing their jobs – in Solyndra’s case, 1,100 of them.

But in a press release printed in a solar industry trade publication, a very different picture of those much-maligned loan guarantees emerges, and Tipton’s view of them:

The project by Cogentrix generates 40% efficient power, double the efficiency of PV, through a CPV technology that utilizes concentrating optics and multi-junction solar cell panels and a dual-axis tracking system.

Freeman explained the importance of their DOE solar loan guarantee, a program that is not popular within Tipton’s party in congress.”With an unproven technology, we couldn’t get a loan from a bank,” Freeman told the congressman. “This has made it a bit uncomfortable for us, but it is a poster project for success.” [Pols emphasis]

“I think it is impressive,” Tipton said [Pols emphasis] after learning about the technology and standing under one of the 28,000 square foot arrays Friday afternoon. “Here in the third district, in Alamosa County, we have the world’s largest solar facility and just look at the technology.”

Bottom line: Tipton is forced to backpedal standard GOP rhetoric against the Department of Energy’s renewable energy loan guarantee program for the same reason that Rep. Cory Gardner steered clear of similar criticism where it concerned now-bankrupt Abound Solar in Gardner’s district. The fact is, renewable energy technology is not as safe an investment as oil extraction, and just like the development of traditional energy extraction–like “fracking,” for example–has been subsidized by the government, these technologies require incubation before they achieve profitability. The high-profile failures in solar power investment like Solyndra are attributable to global competition, namely the alleged “dumping” of sub-cost panels on the U.S. market by China, more than any sort of malfeasance by the DOE or the companies involved.

If there’s any accountability at all, Scott Tipton will never be able to deny that again.

21 thoughts on “Off The Solyndra Reservation With Scott Tipton”

ArapaGOP says:

July 16, 2012 at 11:49 pm

What you’re doing is illustrating another problem with the government picking winners and losers. Scott Tipton is a good conservative, but he can’t attack businesses in his own district. Tipton didn’t give Cogentrix this loan guarantee, but if he criticizes it he’ll be hounded by the left for opposing “jobs in his district.” This is a trap laid by the left with taxpayer dollars. You’re like drug dealers offering to hook people out of kindness.

The experience of Abound Solar and Solyndra teaches us that Obama’s energy loan guarantees are bad policy and a waste of taxpayer dollars. Tipton should be able to say that, but smart conservatives understand why he can’t. We still know Tipton will defend the American taxpayer from the next Solyndra more than Obama and Sal Pace.

I can see Pols put a lot of work into their gotcha attack, but I’m not “taking the bait.”

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1. MADCO says:
  
  July 17, 2012 at 12:09 am
  
  Oh and outsource everything.
  
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2. Phoenix Rising says:
  
  July 17, 2012 at 12:09 am
  
  the Internet should never have been born, we shouldn’t have many of the drugs we currently use to treat disease, nor nuclear energy.
  
  But yours I suppose is the “conservative” view, and why I left the purity-minded GOP. The GOP doesn’t have a vision for this country, only a bunch of fears.
  
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  1. JeffcoBlue says:
    
    July 17, 2012 at 12:42 am
    
    New drugs hurt the free market.
    
    Medicare hurt the free market.
    
    The internet hurts the free market.
    
    Nuclear energy hurts the free market.
    
    GM hurt the free market.
    
    Emancipation Proclamation…hurt the free market…
    
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3. Fidel's dirt nap says:
  
  July 17, 2012 at 12:46 am
  
  Log in to Reply
  1. Aristotle says:
    
    July 17, 2012 at 12:47 am
    
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4. Aristotle says:
  
  July 17, 2012 at 12:52 am
  
  I’ll take that to mean that you can’t answer. You certainly don’t here, other than an almost accidental admission that Repubs are against government spending except when their districts benefit. “Good conservative” my ass – a good conservative would tell his own constituents to make sacrifices, but Tipton is a modern Republican, for whom conservatism is best practiced by others (preferably those he won’t see at the country club).
  
  The whole Solyndra thing is just part of how the GOP is trying to kill solar and other alternative energies because they threaten fossil fuel energy industries. Nothing new here.
  
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  1. Albert J. Nock says:
    
    July 17, 2012 at 1:32 am
    
    Really though, the bankruptcy and silly loan, hurt the solar industry more than anything else could have.
    
    BTW, I love the Saul Alinsky tactics in your signature.
    
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    1. taterheaptom says:
      
      July 17, 2012 at 2:10 am
      
      You know you are NOT suppose to reveal the Saul Alinsky tactics! Nockers is too quick. Too quick by a long shot.
      
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    2. Libertad says:
      
      July 17, 2012 at 3:53 am
      
      The Democrat diversion of private American capital to government picked winners and losers damages our ability to fund basic citizen safety nets that are already over burdened by excessive government growth and job/income retardation.
      
      Icing on your cake is more leverage of the citizens pocket book and generational theft …. all in the name of Obama knows best.
      
      You big government specialists are like opium processors with a crack habit who’s spouse grows coco plants but is hooked on heroin.
      
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      1. Sir Robin says:
        
        July 17, 2012 at 5:52 am
        
        Log in to Reply
        
        Libertad says:
        
        July 17, 2012 at 6:28 am
        
        Not that you could counter the facts….you default to tired and juvenile tactics because you have no adult response.
        
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        Aristotle says:
        
        July 17, 2012 at 4:24 pm
        
        The whole thing is selective. If you truly care about “diversion of private American capital to government picked winners,” you should at least have spoken up when the government started contracting out security via no-bid contracts in Iraq.
        
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        Sir Robin says:
        
        July 18, 2012 at 4:29 am
        
        You big government specialists are like opium processors with a crack habit who’s spouse grows coco plants but is hooked on heroin.
        
        Log in to Reply
        
        Sir Robin says:
        
        July 18, 2012 at 4:30 am
        
        Log in to Reply
      2. Diogenesdemar says:
        
        July 17, 2012 at 6:53 am
        
        You big government specialists are like opium processors with a crack habit who’s spouse grows coco plants but is hooked on heroin.
        
        You’ve outdone yourself. Here’s you’re little reward:
        
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        Fidel's dirt nap says:
        
        July 17, 2012 at 7:23 pm
        
        But Libertad already knows that.
        
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      3. ajb says:
        
        July 17, 2012 at 5:36 pm
        
        You big government specialists are like opium processors with a crack habit who’s spouse grows coco plants but is hooked on heroin.
        
        Log in to Reply
      4. Gilpin Guy says:
        
        July 17, 2012 at 8:46 pm
        
        over the last 70 years and look at what happened to that industry. I wonder how many dry holes were drilled with those government dollars.
        
        Oh wait bad example.
        
        Damn you Libnuts. How can we have a reasonable discussion of the benefits of subsidies if you don’t have the guts to layout them all out on the table?
        
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    3. Aristotle says:
      
      July 17, 2012 at 4:23 pm
      
      Like you, and every other con troll on the web, I’ve never read the guy.
      
      Butthurt about being shown for the classless turd you are? Just be glad I didn’t go to Pols with this. We’d be spared your bullshit, but I prefer to let fools prove their foolishness over and over.
      
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5. dukeco1 says:
  
  July 18, 2012 at 3:41 pm
  
  smart conservatives
  
  is becoming more oxymoronic with each passing day. Or maybe it’s just that, if there are any smart conservatives left, they aren’t saying anything.
  
  What you’re doing is illustrating another problem with the government picking winners and losers
  
  So…only private companies like Bain Capital should pick winners and losers?
  
  There just doesn’t seem to be a narrative that works for you…keep trying though, it is remarkably entertaining.
  
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