Beacon Power, a Massachusetts-based, clean-energy company, filed for bankruptcy protection on Sunday, Reuters reported, potentially leaving taxpayers on the hook for up to $43 million, reports Business Insider . So what’s the reason this time? “The current economic and political climate, the financing terms mandated by DOE, and Beacon’s recent delisting notice from Nasdaq have together severely restricted Beacon’s access to additional investments through the equity markets,” Chief Executive Officer F. William Capp said in papers filed yesterday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Delaware, according to a recent Bloomberg report. In short, the “political environment” and financing terms that the company agreed to are prohibiting them from operating profitably? Early chatter is that this case may very well be another Solyndra situation all over again. Much like the failed energy company, Beacon Power received millions ($43 million to be exact) in loan guarantees only to file for bankruptcy soon afterwards. This could make matters worse for the Obama administration seeing as how House Republicans have already started an investigation into the DOE loan program. Another bankruptcy will only exacerbate the situation. However, unlike Solyndra, taxpayers will be “among the first in line to collect among Beacon’s creditors.” Yet despite this, the failure of yet another energy company only adds to the list of failed investments made by the administration–and thus strengthens the argument against the administration’s long-term “clean energy” goals. Beacon Power assures investors that not all is lost. The Beacon Power subsidiary that received the loan guarantee “has cash reserves and proceeds from the plant that it was required to hold as collateral on the loan,” according to Bloomberg .
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Another Energy Company Files For Bankruptcy, Could Leave Taxpayers On The Hook For Millions
**Written by Doug Powers Australia is debuting a carbon tax much like the one Al Gore has proposed for the United States. A few details : In Australia, the federal government launched plans for a $23 per tonne tax on carbon, which will affect the country’s 500 largest polluters commencing July 1, 2012. “By 2020 our carbon price will take 160 million tonnes of pollution out of the atmosphere every year,” said Australian PM Julia Gillard. ” That’s the equivalent of taking forty five million cars off the road.” The government will exempt farmers, small business, families and road transport from the scheme, which will feature a carbon tax from 2012-2015, switching to an emissions trading scheme in 2015. When we read about carbon taxes on “polluters,” the stories are accompanied by who is exempt from the taxes. The fact is, nobody is exempt — with the possible exception of the corporation getting hit with the tax. One example is the airline industry in Australia, which is simply doing the obvious and passing the tax along to consumers : Qantas and Virgin both say they will be passing on the cost of the carbon tax, with average fare increases of at least $3. Australia’s two biggest airlines are among the first major companies to give an indication to investors about the cost to the company of the carbon price, and how that impact will be passed on to customers. The airlines say they will bear the full brunt of the $23-a-tonne starting price on carbon, which is being passed onto domestic airlines in the form of a higher jet fuel excise, without receiving any Government compensation or transition assistance. Qantas says the estimated impact of the increased fuel costs is between $110-115 million next financial year, which it says will be passed on in full to customers in a transparent way. Other industries will do the same. This is the inherent irony in the global warming scheme. These taxes are purportedly put in place to ultimately help protect the people at the lower end of the economic totem pole who will be “hardest hit” by global warming, but they’re the same people who are going to get stuck with the bill. The lifestyles of Al Gore or his pal Sir Richard Branson will not be negatively impacted. **Written by Doug Powers Twitter @ThePowersThatBe
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Inevitable: Qantas, Virgin Airlines Passing Australia’s Carbon Tax Along to Consumers
ContributorNetwork – COMMENTARY | The Space Politics website relates what President Obama said about the future of the U.S. space program in an interview with local media in Ohio recently, among the first the president made on the subject since his infamous Kennedy Space Center speech:
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Obama Sends Mixed Messages, Questionable Promises on Space Program
(ContributorNetwork)
“We are 18 months away from taking people into space,” says billionaire entrepreneur Richard Branson. Branson’s latest venture — Virgin Galactic — is reportedly on track to launch commercial space travel in the near future and hopes to couple successful rocket trips with cozy space hotel stays in the future. In March, Branson’s SpaceshipTwo passenger rocket, built by aviation engineer Burt Rutan, made its maiden flight over the California desert. According to AFP , Branson estimates round-trip space travel fares to start at $200,000 each. The company already boasts a reported $45 million in deposits from more than 330 people waiting to be among the first civilians to travel into space.
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‘Space tourism’ to start in 18 months
To the Pilgrims – the early Calvinists who came on the Mayflower and were among the first founders of what would become this great nation — all was predetermined: God knew all that had ever been or that ever would be, and their certainty of divine omniscience both raised and answered for them what they
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The Highest Form of Patriotism
