Department of Energy Loan Program

Dear Friends,

You may remember the todo during the 2012 Presidential election about Solyndra, a start up solar company, that defaulted on a loan from the Department of Energy loan program.  The DOE loan program was designed to provide funds to encourage new energy technology that could not otherwise attract capital.  The program was started under President George W. Bush in 2005 but was substantially funded under President Obama's stimulus program in 2009.

Well you will be happy to know that the loan program is now showing a profit, even though when it was started it was not intended to do so.  The program has been a great success providing capital to fund new green technology that could not get private capital until their business models could be proven.  Under this program many business models have been proven and now private capital is replacing public capital to make new green technologies realities.  Here is a link to an NPR report.

Despite Republican claims, the government can, should and does great things.  This government loan program helped entrepreneurs prove their ideas (or have them disproved), developed new green technology, created lots of private sector jobs, moved us toward energy independence, reduced our carbon emissions and improved the quality of our air.  Keep in mind that it did this because the private sector would not take the risk and keep in mind that the government made a profit doing so.

Thanks for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal