Political Quotes

“Let me just say this complements the amendment that was done earlier by Mrs. Blackburn from Tennessee. This is the no-more-Solyndras amendment. We're all familiar with that situation. As the Clerk read, this amendment would prohibit any new loan guarantees for renewable energy, electricity systems, and biofuels as defined in section 1705 of title 17 and, as I said before, complements what the House agreed to and passed earlier. Let me just quickly tell you about this program. This is a $15 billion program. Twenty-six projects got your tax dollars. Of those 26 projects that got American tax money, 22 of those 26--three-fourths of those--were rated double B-minus junk status. In other words, no private capital would go there, but it was okay to put your tax dollars into these projects. And what have we got for this? Everyone knows the story of Solyndra. They received $535 million, fired a thousands workers, and went bankrupt. But we also have Beacon Power, which received $43 million of your tax dollars and went bankrupt as well. First Solar got $3 billion in loan guarantees. It's now fired half of its workers. Its stock has plummeted. And Abound Solar--just to name four--$400 million loan guarantee and has fired 180 workers. So here's what's going on with this program. The 1705 program was funded by the stimulus program. That is now expired.…”