The Inspector General of the U.S Department of Labor recently released a report on the $500 Million inserted into the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 Act for the creation of “green jobs”. The Recover Act provided the money for labor exchange and job training to prepare workers for a career in energy efficiency and renewable energy.  The audit was requested by Senator Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) from his position on the Committee on Finance. The period of the grant to be awarded for this program is now three quarters completed as of the September 30th report. The results are not encouraging.

    Of the initial $500 Million, only $172.7 million has been distributed to date with $327.3 Million still unexpended as of the end of June. The jobs side of the ledger is even worse. Administration expectations were for the program to support the training and hiring of 124,893 participants. Only 52,782 have been served at the time of the report and of those the program has created a total of 8,035 jobs. The expectation when the money was set aside was that these jobs would last six months or longer although to date only 1,336 participants have retained employment that long.
    The performance of the program was so dismal the Inspector General took the unprecedented step of suggesting that the government try to get its money back. His final recommendation states “Any of the remaining $327.3 Million of funds determined not to be needed should be recouped as soon as practicable…”.
    This comes on the  heels of the Solyndra collapse, another green project that cost taxpayers $535 Million, and was on the verge of receiving another $469 Million before the companies Chapter 11 filing for bankruptcy in early September. The FBI investigation is pursuing links between George Kaiser and several other of the companies shareholders, and executives, as having made substantial donations to Obama’s campaign. While the Solyndra boondoggle continues to generate subpoenas as the House seeks its own investigation, new reports of another ensuing green scandal are just hitting the news.
    SunPower Corp., a solar power company, received a $1.2 Billion loan guarantee from the Department of Energy to build a solar plant in San Luis Obispo, CA. After the initial construction project was completed the plant would add a total of 15 permanent jobs. Recent financial reports indicate the company has lost $523 million for the year to date and continues to burn through cash. The stock has dropped more than 50% since August and the CFO Dennis Arriola will resign in March. SunPower sold the underlying Solar Ranch to NRG Energy later and according to SEC filings doesn’t have nay long term contracts with customers.
    It was revealed earlier last month that Rep. George Miller (D-CA), who has long been a proponent of the project, has a son who works for the lobbying firm the represents SunPower, and Jonathon Silver, who lead the DOE loan program, resigned last month.

    Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney has also called for an investigation into  Fisker Automotive, which received $529 Million, and Tesla, which got $454 Million, in loans from the Department of Energy. Fisker investors, Al Gore among them, and Tesla founder Elon Musk are both major Democratic donors. In response to the continuing scandals over the misspent funds the White House today refused a House Panels subpoena for documents relating to the ventures.
    Republican candidates, running against a President currently laboring under a Carteresque 44% approval rating, will continue to place the economic recovery and the administrations dismal record front and center as they canvas America asking voters “Are you better off than you were $4 Trillion dollars ago?