Robbing Taxpayers of Tax Dollars – 90 Million for 10 Jobs

 Funneling Money Through The Obama Administration

General Electric, CEO Jeffrey Immelt, Chair of Obama’s Job Council and the Billions They Raked in Through the 2009 Obama Stimulus Package   

 In late 2009, it was reported that GE became “one of the newer smart meter players,” and that they “had been working with utility Oklahoma Gas & Electric on a 6,600 smart meter trial, and had procured “a contract with Pepco Holdings (PHI),” which received Smart Grid Investment Grants totaling $168 million. GE also has a big contract with Florida Power and Light,” also the recipient of a $200 million stimulus grant.

Yet, this is just the beginning of the GE “green bucks”…

While a recent “news flash” was published by the Republican National Committee, confirming via Recovery.gov that “General Electric received over $1.2 billion worth of stimulus loan guarantees, awards, contracts and grants” (the majority of which were for renewable energy projects), they missed billions more.

GE’s two projects from the 1705 Loan Guarantee Program, both of which are included the DOE’s risky investment portfolio.

• 1366 Technologies Inc, Rating B by Fitch, Sept 2011 –– $150 million
• Caithness Shepherds Flat, LLC –– Rating BBB- by Fitch; Oct 2010 for $1.04 billion (or $1.3 billion)

GE sponsored the Caithness Shepherds Flat, and also supplied the project with 338 wind-turbines. On top of the $1.3 billion loan, the Caithness project is set to receive a cash grant of $490 million from the Treasury Department once those turbines start turning.

Later, another close associate of, and big donor to the president invested in Caithness. As uncovered by Peter Schweizer in his book, Throw Them All Out, “Google’s CEO at the time, Eric Schmidt, served as an informal advisor to President Obama.” Still, Schmidt, Google Executive Chairman, was an Obama donor in 2008, and since April 2009, is a member of the president’s Science and Technology Advisory Council (PCAST). Interestingly, Google’s $814,540 contribution to Obama’s campaign made it the fifth largest donor in 2008. As of late, Google has aimed its “search engines” at green technology, many of which have received government “help” –– BrightSource, Solar City, Telsa Motors, and others, but we’ll stay focused on GE.

The House Oversight, March 2012 investigation reveals internal memos of concern over the fact that the Caithness Shepherds Flat project was receiving “an excessive amount of public subsidy (where grants, tax credits and loan guarantees provided 65% of the funding for the project), and that private parties did not have sufficient ‘skin in the game.’”

Further, it goes on to state, “Four months after the DOE approved the Caithness loan, President Obama named Jeff Immelt, the CEO of GE, as the Chairman of Obama’s Job Council” –– a council stacked with Democratic donors, and several Obama bundlers, both for the 2008 and 2012 campaigns.

It also discloses “General Electric’s broad access to loan guarantees,” and it gives a very illuminating account. “Since Immelt’s appointment as Chair of the Job Council, two additional government-backed transactions have occurred.” “First the poorly rated 1366 Technologies, sponsored in part by GE, received a direct $150 million loan commitment from the DOE for its solar manufacturing plant.” Second was the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) that loaned $54.6 million to Kansas City Southern Railway Company (KCSR) “to purchase thirty new General Electric ES44AC diesel-electric locomotives” –– a loan that raised red flags in the House investigation.

source: Patriot Acton Network