Guest Voice: James Hall: SunEdison Green Power Bankruptcy Inevitability

SunEdison Green Power Bankruptcy Inevitability

For all those sun baked brains that see salvation in renewable nirvana, the imminent demise of SunEdison is the latest case that creative green economics is the path to insolvency. After studying the tangled web of cross collateralization and rehypothecation of debt, the WSJ announcement is inevitable, SunEdison Said to Be Preparing to File for Bankruptcy. “Solar-energy company SunEdison Inc. plans to file for bankruptcy protection in coming weeks, a dramatic about-face for a company whose market value stood at nearly $10 billion in July.”

Take the tour of the SunEdison: A Timeline of the Biggest Corporate Implosion in US Solar History, and understand that the solar and wind industry is founded on a Ponzi scheme of investor hype and government subsidies. Forbes investigates the convoluted and intertwined relationship in Reconsidering The SunEdison YieldCos, TerraForm Power And TerraForm Global.

“The company has been highly levered for some years now and management states that the recent increase in indebtedness will go towards funding of the company’s project pipeline.

Management expects the company to continue to lose money. However, it expects the cash generated by the two yieldcos under long-term contracts will begin to flow as early as the end of this year or beginning next year.”

At this point you must be asking just what is a ”yieldco”? Sun Edison Buying First Wind Scam provides a breakdown and crash course on how SunEdison used their corporate shell game to acquire a long failed and immensely indebted industrial wind scheme, lately known as First Wind.

“The lack of disclosure of ALL the debt for projects that cannot even satisfy minimum interest payments must less retiring the actual obligations, is indicative of an industry that is based upon fraud and uncompetitive costs.”

According to Law 360 the Nov. 2014: SunEdison and TerraForm acquire wind developer First Wind for $2.4 billion, does not tell the entire story.

“TerraForm picks up First Wind’s operating portfolio, which includes 521 megawatts of wind power assets, for an enterprise value of $862 million. That amount includes the equity purchase price, the assumption of debt for First Wind’s operating portfolio, certain swap and debt breakage fees and the purchase of a partner’s ownership stake in certain assets held by First Wind through a joint venture, according to regulatory filings.”

Now you need to enter into the looking glass and examine the rejected filing of First Wind with the SEC for their IPO. The links on Cohocton Wind Watch documents the actual degree of debt that this candidate for receivership held back in 2010. Why is this important?

The latest law suit from the investment banksters who financed First Wind gives the answer in SunEdison Legal Woes Mount With Suits Over First Wind.

“D.E. Shaw & Co. LP and Madison Dearborn Capital Partners IV LP say the funds in the TerraForm Power matter are owed as deferred payment for SunEdison’s $1.9 billion purchase of First Wind Holdings LLC in January 2015, and will be due “immediately” if SunEdison files for bankruptcy or restructures its debt, according to the suit filed in the Supreme Court of the State of New York.

First Wind was one of SunEdison’s biggest purchases, and made it the world’s biggest renewable-energy company. It was part of a massive buying spree that racked up $11.7 billion in debt by the end of September and helped drive the company to the edge of failure.”

Well, the immediate implosion of the SunEdison house of cards follows the same pattern of the crooked First Wind operation that cooked the books for years. Start with the notice that SunEdison In More Hot Water As SEC Investigation Begins & Bankruptcy Looms, “US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has begun its own investigation into the company’s disclosures to investors about its liquidity” and add in the Bloomberg reports that SunEdison Receives U.S. Subpoena on Vivint Deal Gone Wrong.

“The Justice Department’s subpoena comes about three weeks after the deal with Vivint, a takeover that drew the ire of billionaire investor David Tepper, was canceled. Vivint sued SunEdison shortly after, saying its officials had failed to meet financial obligations and work toward consummating the merger. SunEdison auditors had meanwhile started investigations into allegations made by former executives and a current employee about the accuracy of the company’s “anticipated financial position.”

The circular accounting circles never seem to reconcile. Just maybe the basic economics used to finance these dubious energy companies need a thoroughgoing over examination by the regulatory agencies and financial community.

Read closely the delusional flimflam From a SunEdison Press Release:

“TerraForm Power’s acquisition of the Invenergy wind plants leverages the power of SunEdison’s platform which was enhanced with our acquisition of First Wind in January of 2015,” said Ahmad Chatila, SunEdison chief executive officer and TerraForm Power chairman. “The Invenergy transaction creates significant value for our shareholders through the accretion in our TerraForm Power ownership and the acceleration of our Incentive Distribution Rights (IDRs). Together with TerraForm Power, SunEdison’s development platform will change how energy is generated, distributed and owned around the world.”

No wonder that the SEC is investigating “the company’s disclosures to investors”. The public needs to wake up to the facts that the solar and wind industry promises much and delivers little. Anyone remember Solyndra and Evergreen Solar?

Who else but the Motley Fool to sum up the lesson of another failed “Green” utopian environmental illusion, What Happens to SunEdison Inc If It Goes Under?

“Here’s the biggest question in a potential SunEdison bankruptcy: What is the renewable energy development business worth?

In theory, developing renewable energy projects should drive everything from the O&M business to yieldcos. But developing projects requires a lot of money, including debt, which SunEdison has found out the hard way. If that funding dries up, so does the business.”

Learn well and remember long. Generating electricity based on government subsidies is a fool’s game. Allowing quick buck artists to become developers and pitch their convoluted and Byzantine yieldco “re-use” collateral pledges is pure fraud. The public is continually being duped by opportunists, who are more skilled at ripping off the investor than producing any usable electricity. The forthcoming bankruptcy of SunEdison is another sign that energy policy under the cult of renewable production is not economically feasible.

For additional evidence that SunEdison’s Subsidy-Fueled Collapse, Robert Bryce nails the problem with a failed governmental energy policy.

“The biggest federal handouts — two of them totaling $200 million — were made in 2010 and 2011 to a subsidiary of SunEdison, First Wind, for the Milford Wind project in Utah. In addition to the federal subsidies, SunEdison got $30 million in subsidies from various state authorities, including $21 million from governmental entities in New York. On top of that, SunEdison also received $846 million in federal loans, loan guarantees, tax-exempt federal bonds, and federal insurance. The total government support for SunEdison comes out to $1.5 billion.”

The effort to shut down coal generation, decommission nuclear plants, limit hydro facilities and restrict natural gas turbines all lead to higher electric costs and ultimate brown outs. The true cost of continuing down this road of electric burn out by underwriting uneconomical “feel good” projects is punitive and ridiculous.

A SunEdison bankruptcy reshuffling is not about cancelling debt, but needs to be the liquidation of assets and accountability for fiduciary malfeasance. What does it take to admit that the renewal experiment is a bust? Cut the “Green” loses and get on with the business of generating reliable energy.

James Hall – April 6, 2016

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For more green articles like this one, Check out “Breaking All the Rules”

The stupidity which is known as the far left

Least anyone should think that I have totally lost my mind, I present to you, one of the chief reasons why I was never a big fan of President Barack Obama.

Jazz Shaw, who once called me a “racist dickbag” for calling out one of Obama’s lapdogs; highlights one of the reasons why I am not a huge fan of the Obama wing of the Democratic Party:

The host of Up With Chris Hayes was holding court over a panel discussion on domestic energy issues, so since that’s pretty much my field I had decided to tune in. The initial discussion had roped in quite a bit of the usual disinformation on natural gas fracking (which appeared to draw heavily on “facts” from fabulist Josh Fox’s fictional propaganda piece, Gasland). There was one industry “advocate” included who I wasn’t familiar with, but she never seemed to manage to take a stand against any of the worst of the energy witch-hunt comments being thrown around, which led to my wandering off to fry up some scrapple and eggs. But then, just as Hayes was preparing to toss to a commercial break, one quote reached my ears which quickly dragged me back to the TV.

My sense is that the price of energy is too low at some level right now, and I want to talk about that right after we take this break.

Check out the video:

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

The quote is a bit long, here, but as Jazz says, it is worth the read:

Chris Hayes: We’re talking about the massive, extractive energy boom happening in America right now and how it’s transforming our politics and how that can be made to work with a sane climate policy, which is really the difficult question. Before the break I left the question on the table about the price of energy being too low right now. Basically we see this massive amount of supply has come onto the grid thanks largely to natural gas. The price has come down, and I think we generally think, “Oh, lower prices are better.” But it seems to me there’s a lot of problematic stuff about the price coming down sharply as it is right now in terms of incentives for efficiency and et cetera.

Dan Dicker: You would want the prices to go up a lot because it would drive the next stage towards renewables, and make that at least cost-effective. Algae fuel, we talk a lot about that…

C.H.: Some people talk about that.

D.D.: Yeah. The cost is about eight and a half to nine dollars a gallon compared to gasoline as it is now. You want the prices to go up to make these a little more cost effective. Drive the technology into them. Unfortunately it’s actually going quite the opposite. You talk about increased supply here in the United States. In fact, overseas demand is dropping. We are still in the midst of an economic problem in Europe. Chinese growth is going down. Indian growth seems to be going down. In this country we’ve done better in terms of efficiencies and our demands are starting to drop, so in terms of what economically you can expect, you will expect the opposite, or at least I do over the next several years, that oil prices will in fact go lower. Natural gas you can – because we have a futures market, we look forward to the future and see what people are betting the price is going to be. That doesn’t go over 5$ an MCF until 2020 according to the futures markets. So although you might want… we have to drive the renewable argument some other way, because price doesn’t look like it’s going to do it.

Frances Beinecke: Look, the only thing that’s going to change that is if we finally put a price on carbon.

C.H.: Right.

F.B.: The externals of all the fossil fuel development are not incorporated in the current price, so the environmental effects, the health effects, the consequences to communities, none of that is factored in. We have to change that, get a price on carbon, drive it up so we can promote renewables and efficiencies first and foremost.

Jazz Shaw observes the obvious here:

And for what? On Hayes’ show he even admitted that the recent surge in natural gas usage has driven carbon based emissions down to the lowest levels seen in decades. But is that enough? No. It is not. Because somebody, somewhere is still burning hydrocarbon based fuels. And that’s got to be stopped, no matter the cost to the country.

Look, I’m not saying this is the most shocking thing Chris Hayes has ever done or said, nor that it even represents some sort of low point. (I highly doubt he’ll ever top his now famous moment when he decided he was uncomfortable referring to the Honored Dead as heroes.) But there is a repeating pattern here of media spokesmodels who seem to be so out of touch with the lives, concerns and challenges facing regular Americans that one wonders if they ever leave Manhattan. And you should be disturbed by this, because there are still people who listen. Some of them even vote in Congress.

Which explains why I am not a huge fan of the far left in this Country — or in this case Chris Hayes. Because the far-left in this Country believes that we should punish anyone who does not want to pursue an agenda of renewable energy. I believe this to be wrong; not because I am some sort of shill for the big oil companies or anything sill like that. But rather because I happen to know that when you start punishing people in their wallets, they are going to be less inclined to vote for you. Renewable energy is nowhere near mass production levels at all. It is still being tested.

Now as for how this jives with my departure from the so-called “Conservative” movement; I will say this: The Conservatives have some really good ideas on fiscal policy and some of their social polices are nice too. The problem is that they seem to believe that imposing big partisan Government regulations on those who choose to organize and demand that companies respect their rights. This is just something that I cannot agree with at all. I am, after all, a comment sense type of a person, who does believe in limited Government, at all levels. This is why I turned away from the Conservative movement, for the time being. I hope they come around and get off of the extremist stupidity that has sprung up since Obama took office.

Now, as for the far-left: The reason why I really just do not get into the idiotic stuff, like this here; is because it is simply out of touch with the rest of the World. The idea that we should punish people, is just not cool in my book.

Hopefully, that all makes sense; it does to me. I am not a partisan person. I am about common sense and there seems to be a bit of a lack of that, on both sides.

Heh: GM’s electric car sales plummet, GM blames “inventory issues”

I hate writing stuff like this because my Dad is a GM retiree. However, the truth is the truth and the truth is, General Motors is lying out of their rather large derrieres.

The Story via The Detroit News — which is, by the way, a Conservative/Libertarian biased Newspaper:

The Chevy Volt. A $39,145 green energy boondoggle that no one can afford to own. Except for Barack Obama’s rich liberal friends.

Sales of Chevrolet’s Volt fell in November, following the vehicle’s best sales month in October, while less expensive electrified vehicles gained ground on Chevy’s range-extended plug-in hybrid.

Chevrolet sold 1,519 Volts in November, a 33 percent rise over the same month a year ago. But that was only about half the record 2,961 vehicles sold in October and 2,851 in September.

Don Johnson, U.S. vice president of Chevrolet sales and service, attributed the fall in Volt sales from its record-setting tally in October as an inventory issue, felt particularly hard in California.

“Dealers are just clamoring for more,” he said of the California market, where GM sells about 34 percent of Volts and where it recently had just an eight-day supply of the vehicle. Inventory is now up to 23 days for California and about 60 days for U.S. supply, which Johnson described as “ideal.”

Volt sales through 11 months this year totaled 20,828.

Now for the real reason sales of the Chevy Volt have truly dropped:

It’s difficult to tell whether expiration of favorable sales incentives also led to the fall in Volt sales. Without special incentives, the Volt costs $39,145 before a $7,500 federal tax credit. That’s more expensive than the base prices for Toyota Motor Corp.’s Prius plug-in ($32,000), Ford Motor Co.’s C-Max Energi plug-in ($32,950) and Nissan Motor Co.’s all-electric Nissan Leaf ($35,200)

Talk about burying the lead on that story! The truth is that this is what happens when car manufactures seek money for the United States Federal Government and then proceed to capitulate to the demands of a left-wing socialist ideologue, who would rather strangle the US economy in favor of a green energy boondoggle. Basically folks, what this means is that you and I, the American people; are on the chain; not only for rescuing a failed auto company, but also a failed green energy automobile that was priced so high, that the average American could not even afford to buy the silly thing.

My friends, elections have consequences and this here is one of them. My Father will now most likely lose his pension, when GM finally does fail. All because General Motors could not bear the thought of going through a managed bankruptcy. Instead GM went to the hog trough of the United States Government and invested in a green energy boondoggle, which now, as it seems is another idiotic failure.

Please, for the sake of Liberty, next time; vote different.

Living proof that liberals are classless human beings

Before we begin, a little music….:

For your reading pleasure:

DEAD ANDY BREITBART IS NOW ROMNEY’S TOP CAMPAIGN STRATEGIST
DougJ / Balloon Juice: Bad like Jesse James
BooMan / Booman Tribune: Welcome Back to Palinville — I think Steve M. is right.‘

Go read that stuff and come back here. I’ll wait.

Now, did you read that? Let me ask you this; what if we Conservatives mocked a dead liberal like that? Just a note: Andrew Breitbart did say some nasty things about Ted Kennedy, which is why I was not a huge fan of his. But, still, what if we Conservatives mocked a dead liberal blogger, or public figure who was liberal? We would be poo poo’ed from one end of spectrum to the other! Not only this, but if someone said something as nasty as what this “no more Mr. nice blog” said and it was about a liberal; the Non-Fox media would be all over it. However, because it is a liberal blogger, and a nasty son-of-a-bitch one at that, not a word is said about it.

My friends, this right here; along with a good deal of other issues, is why this skeptical left-of-center, American populist kind of a guy simply walked away from the Democrats in 2008 and has not looked back since. They have nothing anymore, nothing that this skeptical person wants to buy anymore. All they have is nastiness, like this; class warfare, and racial resentment. They have no solutions, they have nothing for the middle class and the working man. They are the party of the minority and the identity politics crowd; the part of hand outs and freeloaders.

It is truly a sad thing to behold, all the years of work done by great statesmen, like Roosevelt, Truman and many before them; is being squandered by people who simply hate this Country, its morals and its legacy. These are the ones who gave us LBJ and his disastrous “great society.” They are the ones who gave us Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and now this disastrous neo-leftist Barack Hussein Obama.

The Democratic Party, which President Ronald Reagan referred to as the “Honorable Party” has given way to the neo-leftist party. They proved that to me, when the Obama campaign basically used Chicago-style tactics of death threats and dirty pool against a fellow Democrat. This is why I left them; because the honor left that party long ago. Not only that, but the Democrats scheme to bring down our capitalist system though the passage of a clause of to a bill, which turned out to be a rather benign piece of legislation into a ticking time bomb.

Yes, that my friends, is the party that I made the horrible mistake of voting for until 2008, when I finally stopped making excuses for them and realized that party had finally become — and that is a cesspool of hate, racial resentment, class warfare, murder (of babies), God denial and more. I simply had enough and switched to the side that honors God, America and the individual. No, I do not mean the Republican Party — I mean the side of Conservatism.

It is a choice that I do not regret.

Update: Apparently one of the liberals objects to my linking to him. Two words: Tough rocks. He also seems to have a bit of reading comprehension problem; which is typical of the left. He also sent one of his sock puppets to argue with me. Sorry, I don’t argue with idiots, and ya’ll bunch of idiots. But, thanks just the same for the traffic. 😀

Video: Second look at George Will?

Wow….

On the other hand, Susie Madrak needs to seriously look into changing her tampon.

As much as I hate to admit it, Libby Spencer has a point

…and no I don’t mean the one on the top of her head either…. 😉 😛

As you know, I am not a big fan of the previous President. In fact, his stupidity got me to start blogging — That was in 2006 — 8 Years ago. WOW. Makes me feel old. 😯

Anyhow, reacting to the news today and Nancy Pelosi’s reaction to it, Progressive blogger Libby Spencer says:

To which one can only reply, “Why the hell didn’t you do it?

Talk is cheap. If Pelosi’s Congress had actually pursued charges against the very real criminality in the Bush White House and had Rove’s pudgy ass frogmarched down Capitol Hill, it might have made the thieves and scoundrels think twice before embarking on their next caper. And even if it didn’t stop the GOPers, it would have at least made clear Democrats were as willing to fight as hard against the GOP agenda as the left did to put them into a majority.

That they didn’t is at least partly why they’re struggling right now to recapture the enthusiasm of the base.

via The Impolitic: Contemptible Congress.

I have to give the woman credit, when she is right — she is right. The no-nothing Democrats, during Bush’s term is why there was a good deal of lackluster support of the Democrats, during the era of Bush. This is why Obama shot forward, because the Democrats knew that if they did not pick someone like Obama, that they would lose to the Republican again in another election. This is sort of the problem that they have right now; just like during the Clinton era — their President is in trouble and the bench is empty. Except, back then they did have Gore, and Edwards and Hillary and Kerry. Now…. they have nobody at all.

It should be a lesson to them, overreach, when it suits your own political interests is never, ever a good idea. Yes, I know the Republicans have done it too and they paid for it in elections too. Now, it is the Democrats turn. I predict that this election coming in 2012 is going to be a wake up call for the Progressive community and to the Democratic Party. They are going to have to make some tough decisions about the future of that party. Because America is not happy with them, neither is their base. The old way of doing things in that Party is not going to work anymore. They need new ideas. The Democratic Party needs to come back to center and start over. This far-leftist way of doing things as failed and failed badly.

It is time for that party to change, and quickly, before that party is relegated to the dustbin of history.

Local CBS Station catches Solyndra destroying million bucks worth of parts

This is millions of dollars of your tax money, going square down the drain. Angry

The Story via CBS in San Francisco:

FREMONT (CBS 5) — After filing for bankruptcy last year, Fremont solar company Solyndra still owes American taxpayers half a billion dollars. But CBS 5 caught them destroying millions of dollars worth of parts. At Solyndra’s sprawling complex in Fremont, workers in white jumpsuits were unwrapping brand new glass tubes used in solar panels last week. They are the latest, most cutting-edge solar technology, and they are being thrown into dumpsters. Forklifts brought one pallet after another piled high with the carefully packaged glass. Slowly but surely it all ended up shattered. And it’s not a few loads. Hundreds of thousands of tubes on shrink-wrapped pallets will meet a similar demise. Solyndra paid at least $2 million for the specialized glass. A CBS 5 crew found one piece lying in the parking lot. Solyndra still owes the German company that made the tubes close to another $8 million. So why is a bankrupt company that owes a fortune to creditors, including American taxpayers, throwing away millions of dollars worth of assets?

I do believe that the last line of that story. has pretty much become a metaphor for the President Administration. Gee, I wonder if my commenter “Dusty” still believes that I simply do not know what I am talking about. Dusty?

Others: Atlas Shrugs