Another taxpayer-funded energy company files for bankruptcy

[Dashinka 25,917]

A cutting-edge battery maker that received millions from taxpayers has become the latest government-backed energy firm to file for bankruptcy – reviving the controversy over how stimulus dollars were spent under the last administration. 

 

Seven years after Aquion Energy received a $5.2 million stimulus-tied grant from the federal government, the Pennsylvania company on Wednesday filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. 

“Creating a new electrochemistry and an associated battery platform at commercial scale is extremely complex, time-consuming, and very capital intensive. Despite our best efforts to fund the company and continue to fuel our growth, the Company has been unable to raise the growth capital needed to continue operating as a going concern,” Scott Pearson, Aquion's outgoing CEO, said in a press release.  

The company, which is now seeking a buyer, produces batteries to store solar and renewable energy. It had been touted as a rising star in the energy storage business, even attracting investment from Microsoft founder Bill Gates and millions more in state funding.

In January, the company was named “the North American Company of the Year Award” at the annual Cleantech Forum in San Francisco, which “focuses on emerging trends, leading innovation companies, and key players in sustainable innovation.” 

Suzanne Roski, the company's chief restructuring officer, did not respond to a request for comment from Fox News.  

Critics say Aquion’s fate is further evidence the government should not be in the business of picking winners and losers.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/03/10/another-taxpayer-funded-energy-company-files-for-bankruptcy.html

 

[spookyturtle 9,466]

5 million, that's pocket change. 

[Póg mo 1,749]

2 hours ago, Bill & Katya said:

A cutting-edge battery maker that received millions from taxpayers has become the latest government-backed energy firm to file for bankruptcy – reviving the controversy over how stimulus dollars were spent under the last administration. 

 

Seven years after Aquion Energy received a $5.2 million stimulus-tied grant from the federal government, the Pennsylvania company on Wednesday filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. 

“Creating a new electrochemistry and an associated battery platform at commercial scale is extremely complex, time-consuming, and very capital intensive. Despite our best efforts to fund the company and continue to fuel our growth, the Company has been unable to raise the growth capital needed to continue operating as a going concern,” Scott Pearson, Aquion's outgoing CEO, said in a press release.  

The company, which is now seeking a buyer, produces batteries to store solar and renewable energy. It had been touted as a rising star in the energy storage business, even attracting investment from Microsoft founder Bill Gates and millions more in state funding.

In January, the company was named “the North American Company of the Year Award” at the annual Cleantech Forum in San Francisco, which “focuses on emerging trends, leading innovation companies, and key players in sustainable innovation.” 

Suzanne Roski, the company's chief restructuring officer, did not respond to a request for comment from Fox News.  

Critics say Aquion’s fate is further evidence the government should not be in the business of picking winners and losers.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/03/10/another-taxpayer-funded-energy-company-files-for-bankruptcy.html

 

Donald Trump has filed for bankruptcy tons of times, and he didn't need government money to do it. Does that prove Billionaires shouldn't be involved in business?

[Amica Nostra 4,803]

2016 was a watershed year for energy. Solar and Wind are now cheaper than oil and gas. Cheap Storage and smart grids accelerate the shift. Coal is dead, oil is in the ropes ...Natural gas will be the exit plan.

 

 

I am not sure this is about the government picking winners and losers. The industry is in the midst of disruption.

[Dashinka 25,917]

7 hours ago, Póg mo said:

Donald Trump has filed for bankruptcy tons of times, and he didn't need government money to do it. Does that prove Billionaires shouldn't be involved in business?

You said it, his bankruptcies didn't involve wasting taxpayer money.  So does this mean you are fine with losing money you earned?

[Dashinka 25,917]

7 hours ago, spookyturtle said:

5 million, that's pocket change. 

Pocket change to the government, but it seems pretty clear that the government has a knack for wasting/losing taxpayer money.

[Dashinka 25,917]

4 hours ago, ccneat said:

2016 was a watershed year for energy. Solar and Wind are now cheaper than oil and gas. Cheap Storage and smart grids accelerate the shift. Coal is dead, oil is in the ropes ...Natural gas will be the exit plan.

 

 

I am not sure this is about the government picking winners and losers. The industry is in the midst of disruption.

Absolutely, so why is the government involved at all?

[spookyturtle 9,466]

2 hours ago, Bill & Katya said:

Pocket change to the government, but it seems pretty clear that the government has a knack for wasting/losing taxpayer money.

Amen to that. And Trump will waste his share, just on different things. 

[Jacque67 7,328]

It’s not just changes in the bankruptcy code and interest-rate regulations that benefit the wealthy. Real estate developers like Trump have also benefited from a welter of special subsidies and tax breaks squeezed out of pliant local legislators. Trump has the unique distinction of being the first developer in New York to receive a public subsidy for commercial projects under programs initially reserved for improving slum neighborhoods. Referring to how he managed to win a 40-year tax abatement for rebuilding a crumbling hotel at Grand Central Station—a deal that in the first decade cost taxpayers $60 million—Trump quipped, “Someone said, ‘How come you got 40 years?’ I said, ‘Because I didn't ask for 50.’” Trump’s success at getting such deals is better explained by a 1980s study by Newsday, showing Trump had donated more than anyone else to members of the New York City Board of Estimate, which at the time approved all land-use development.

[Jacque67 7,328]

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2015/sep/21/carly-fiorina/trumps-four-bankruptcies/

 

trump never cost a tax payer a dime!!!!!  Maga!!!!

[Amica Nostra 4,803]

5 hours ago, Bill & Katya said:

You said it, his bankruptcies didn't involve wasting taxpayer money.  So does this mean you are fine with losing money you earned?

Federal monies have been involved in backing, funding,guaranteeing, subsidizing, demolishing, planning, directing the activities of housing developers for years.  Why do you think taxpayers have not bankrolled Trump?

[CaliCat 3,957]

But according to the so-called president, bankruptcies are good, and allowed by the law.

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2016/live-updates/general-election/real-time-fact-checking-and-analysis-of-the-first-presidential-debate/fact-check-has-trump-declared-bankruptcy-four-or-six-times/?utm_term=.9853c26dad8a

 

Fact Check: Has Trump declared bankruptcy four or six times?

 

“You’ve taken business bankruptcies six times.”
–Hillary Clinton

“On occasion – four times – we used certain laws that are there.”

–Donald Trump

THE FACT CHECKER | Clinton is correct.

Trump’s companies have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, which means a company can remain in business while wiping away many of its debts. The bankruptcy court ultimately approves a corporate budget and a plan to repay remaining debts; often shareholders lose much of their equity.

Trump’s Taj Mahal opened in April 1990 in Atlantic City, but six months later, “defaulted on interest payments to bondholders as his finances went into a tailspin,” The Washington Post’s Robert O’Harrow found. In July 1991, Trump’s Taj Mahal filed for bankruptcy. He could not keep up with debts on two other Atlantic City casinos, and those two properties declared bankruptcy in 1992. A fourth property, the Plaza Hotel in New York, declared bankruptcy in 1992 after amassing debt.

PolitiFact uncovered two more bankruptcies filed after 1992, totaling six. Trump Hotels and Casinos Resorts filed for bankruptcy again in 2004, after accruing about $1.8 billion in debt. Trump Entertainment Resorts also declared bankruptcy in 2009, after being hit hard during the 2008 recession.

Why the discrepancy? Perhaps this will give us an idea: Trump told Washington Post reporters that he counted the first three bankruptcies as just one.

[Dashinka 25,917]

8 hours ago, spookyturtle said:

Amen to that. And Trump will waste his share, just on different things. 

He will, or more precisely the Congress will since they control the purse strings.  Of course some of the programs may be initiated by Trump or wasted within his various cabinet offices.

[ready4ONE 5,400]

12 hours ago, Bill & Katya said:

You said it, his bankruptcies didn't involve wasting taxpayer money.  So does this mean you are fine with losing money you earned?

Donald Trump wastes taxpayer money the old fashioned way, dodging his taxes and paying his attorney stable a ton of money to fight tooth and nail when audited.

[spookyturtle 9,466]

2 hours ago, Bill & Katya said:

He will, or more precisely the Congress will since they control the purse strings.  Of course some of the programs may be initiated by Trump or wasted within his various cabinet offices.

I guess that's been the case from the beginning of our governement. There's always waste with a group of that size of that size. Lots of leaks, small and large.