A second Department of Energy project has gone bankrupt as reported by The Hill today. Following in Solyndra’s footsteps Beacon Power, another green energy pet project of the administration, has gone belly up.
Ameristroika originally reported on this terrible deal in September 14, 2010 when the project was first announced. In the brief post by site owner Douglas Stewart entitled “$1 Million Per Job Seems to be the Status Quo” Stewart linked the questionable Beacon Power project to special interest that originally secured the deal through questionable tax policy (Feed-In Tariffs) courtesy of groups like The Apollo Alliance with the help of Anthony K. (Van) Jones.
In just one year’s time Beacon has now filed for bankruptcy. Who would’ve guessed that a million dollars per job would not be sustainable? We did. Naturally, any business model that requires a government guarantee on a loan for an investment the company itself is not willing to make, usually does not work out too well.
Plus it was pushed by The Apollo Alliance. Hello!! I am sure Doug will get into why this failed in future posts. Oh and Alstom is the next to flop.
Frequently, new politically active non-profit groups emerge, and after a quick once over look of the board members it is usually blatantly obvious what philosophical category the group falls into. However, one that has been somewhat innocuous is 25×25.
Their objective is to increase renewable energy to be 25% of total US energy consumption within 25 years. Imagine that. It can be achieved if we cut ourselves down to the standards of a third world nation. There are thousands of groups like this with similar goals. Anyone who follows the Climate Change debate can probably name a handful off of the top of their head. So how is 25×25 different?
Was it the fact that the original bill proposing the co2 reductions bears the signature of our current President (then Senator) or the current Secretary of State? Not at all.
The Associations
What caught my attention and raised suspicion is where I found all of the group’s files. They seemed misplaced. Not only were these files absent from their own site and its “directory”, all of the internal documents of this Green group were placed in the “Parent Directory” of the AFTFACE directory. AFTFACE is the American Federation of Teachers Faculty and College Excellence.
Everyone knows why teachers would keep tabs on such a group; the green agenda is an extremely popular aspect of curricula. But they wouldn’t need to host the groups “founding documents”. Before we get started with the unions lets just clear up who the main funders are; Center for American Progress, General Motors, and other losers like the “Union of Concerned Scientists” Now that that is out of the way lets move on!
However, it does make sense if you go back and read AFT president Randi Weingarten’s statements. Their association with green groups tells how the union could benefit; then the story starts to speak for itself.
IMPORTANT: The rest of this post contains documents taken from AFTFACE website directory; while they still had the directory available with public access. Although the directory and folders originally had public access, these documents were not directly accessible while visiting the AFTFACE site-no links existed; these were in “storage”.
Lets start with the politicians (including then Senator Obama and Senator Clinton) that signed off on the 25×25 legislation. Click image for full document.
Click for full Document
The above document is dated January 2007. Shortly after this document (hosted on the one of the AFT/Teacher’s Union Website) the AFT released their “Building Minds, Minding Buildings” report with its focus on building “green” schools with “green jobs”. Out of nowhere the Teacher’s Union was especially interested in “green jobs”. Why? I’ll show you shortly with private letters from the teachers union lobbying for green jobs in recent legislation concerning foreclosures on homeowners. Click on image below for “Building Minds, Minding Buildings” report. (Again-in storage on AFTFACE’s “parent directory”)
Click image for full document
In the Introduction, signed by Randi Weingarten, the AFT expresses its concern over making buildings conform to LEED standards. This week, a blog on Forbes took a look at LEED certified buildings and found some terrible flaws; it turns out the new regulation standards actually cost more $$$. Via a report from Fast Company citing that the buildings are actually “Energy Hogs”
Anyways back to the the “Green Jobs Act” of 2007; it seemed to be helping out more than just the tree-huggers. The “FAQ” sheet hosted on the AFTFACE website outlines who helped draft this legislation. (click image for full document)
Click image for Full Document
Money from All Over spread out All Over
After the Green Jobs Act of 2007 the AFT president Randi Weingarten started talking up the importance of going green. Even in H.R. 3221 (a housing and anti-foreclosure bill) they were touting the importance of “green jobs” even though a brief of the bill doesnt mention anything about green jobs here (govtrack) or here. But the Union letter to all house members mentions it on the bottom of page 2 under “Community Colleges”
Click image for full document
When Capitalism just wont work…Socialism is the answer
To the informed it’s not a surprise to learn that the Teacher’s Union as well as other Unions are not at all capitalists. However, this is usually an assertion that is just made from those “right-wing lunatics” (like Beck, who are right nearly 100% of the time). But it is quite different when you see them say it in their own words. The following entries/documents show the breakdown of the AFT with the AFL-CIO and other organizations, the denouncing of freedom and capitalism, and the Teacher’s Unions open invitation for staff to attend the leftists US Social Forum. Lets Roll!
#1 The invitation for AFTFACE members (same site hosting all these “green files) to attend the US Social Forum.
and then there is the video invitation…from the above screen cap…to get faculty to join with the same group that receives praise from Hugo Chavez. Make sure you take to the streets and push for totalitarian control; sell out generations of freedom for next weeks paycheck!
AFT PowerPoint
Here is the AFT’s Political Action Report. Notice the group that prides itself on helping children doent have the childrens needs listed once in this report. Its all about members and advancing union power. (Clicking both images brings you to the same file)
Click Image for full Report-AFT Political Action
Click Image for AFT Political Action Report
But Wait there’s More!
In a 2007 interview AFT president Randi Weingarten said “…schooling is important for all kids. There is universal acknowledgement of that now. It used to be just us progressives that said that!” (pg. 18 of document below). Its an interesting interview that trashes capitalism and achievement and later, quoting from page 27, “We cede some of our individual rights to have collective responsibility and representative democracy (I thought we were a representative republic). Thats not Socialism; (yes it is) thats not communism (yes it is-especially when youre bilking the public of funds for “green” projects) . thats ceding certain things to have a democratic structure. That’s like Hillary Clinton and others saying ‘It Takes a Village’ “. I believe Jonah Goldberg already discussed how fascistic this was in Liberal Fascism. Here is the interview that starts on page 18 (click image below for full document)
Click for full document
I lied-you can see the AFT files
Yes I am a dirty rotten scoundrel-the parent directory is still open at the AFTFACE site but I will not be posting the link…I want to still be able to access and review the files-I’ll publish the direct path later. But just so you know I’m not BS’ing you here is a screen shot of their backdoor. Good luck and Happy Hunting!
The DOE released a press release yesterdayannouncing its $43 million loan guarantee to Beacon Power to build something I wont pretend to understand.
From the DOE Press Release:
Beacon said the operation will create 20 construction jobs in New York and 40 permanent jobs in Massachusetts, where the company is headquartered. The company will contribute roughly $26 million
The flywheel facility is estimated to cost $69 million
I failed math right before I dropped out of the 1st grade but It seems that the total investment is $69 million (thank god they put that right in the press release) and the total net job creation will be roughly 60 jobs.
Ameristroika 