This program alone brought us five complete failures to date: Solyndra, Beacon Power, Abound Solar, Vehicle Production Group, and Fisker Automotive –– with many still in the shadows. And, in calculating the other renewable energy giveaways (mainly from the stimulus package), there are over 32 Obama-backed green energy companies that have gone under , costing taxpayers over $3 billion, and counting.Additionally, on the "troubled list" are five bailouts and 22 green energy companies/projects that are ready to bite the dust. This does not take into account the various taxpayer-funded green energy programs that have also failed miserably, nor my bombshell story on the "law-breaking, American hating" Spanish conglomerate, Abengoa, that was subsidized with over $3.6 billion in stimulus loans and grants from the American taxpayer.

What's not widely known is that SolarCity was in line to get a $275 million DOE stimulus loan. This is the same Energy Department loan program that The Green Corruption Files has been tracking since the beginning. In short, from 2009 until September 2011, they doled out 32.4 billion in loans, mostly junk status due to their poor credit rating, to 31 clean-energy projects. Winners have been those with political connections to the president and other high-ranking Democrats and/or their friends.

At the end of 2013, I had tracked down 33 federal grants from the 1603 Program , which is another stimulus idea that hands out free taxpayer cash. These stimulus grants were awarded to SolarCity and USB SolarCity Master Tenant in 2011 and 2012, ranging across 15 states, totaling over $92 million.

So, it seems that thus far SolarCity, through green energy grants and special tax breaks, since 2009, from the Obama administration's green money and polices (some extended) has raked in anywhere from $514 million to a $1 billion. And did you get that? SolarCity is importing panels from China.

As one of the nation’s largest solar contractors and recipient of nearly $1 billion in tax subsidies and grants , SolarCity has imported millions of panels from Chinese companies during the past eight years in its quest for market dominance. The company’s unique leasing program leaves SolarCity as the owners of its customers’ rooftop systems, and that means SolarCity reaps the tax incentives.

Basically, SolarCity "exploits loopholes to pocket federal tax breaks intended for homeowners who install solar panels, which is not technically illegal," Jason Stverak notes. Needless to say, as these green companies continue to employ these types of shady business models, they are not only pocketing taxpayer money, there are reports that SolarCity is also "leaving their customers with needlessly high energy bills" –– the opposite of how clean energy (spending tens of billions of tax dollars) has been sold to the American people.

As explained by the, this tax credit "allows homeowners who install solar panels to write off 30 percent of the costs, in an effort to encourage Americans to go green."The article goes on:

From what I gather, this $411 million is from the Solar Investment Tax Credit (ITC), which is in essence the federal business energy investment tax credit available that was expanded significantly by the Energy Improvement and Extension Act of 2008. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), enacted in February 2009, further expanded the credit. The ARRA, known as the trillion-dollar stimulus package, is where as most know, approximately $100 billion was earmarked for renewable energy.

Back to SolarCity and their $275 million DOE deal, dubbed SolarStrong. Due to the Solyndra "red flags" it fell apart just prior to the (stimulus) loan program's deadline in September 2011.

Inside House Oversight emails which The Green Corruption Files has been exposing since their release on October 31, 2012, is where we discovered the coercion, collusion, and cover-ups operating inside the Energy Department. In the 350+ page Appendix II , there were a few email interactions in August 2011 regarding this SolarCity transaction that included two DOE officials (listed below) and contradicts President Obama's 2012 claim that "these are decisions [the loans], by the way, that are made by the Department of Energy, they have nothing to do with politics.”

I've been told that the WH will call tomorrow and tell the DOE that Strong is a 'go' and should move as quickly as possible. Will believe it when see it.

Two days later, O'Rourke writes again to Silver and cc's Matthew Winters , whom was the Department of Energy Policy Advisor at that time, with the subject line, "update..."

Perhaps our additional efforts paid off. They can't hate us much more than they do. Its so much fun to end run them.

SolarCity's RISE... and FALL?





SolarCity Chairman Elon Musk attends Solarcity’s IPO

at the NASDAQ stock exchange on Dec. 13, 2012, in Manhattan, New York. Because of American taxpayers, government mandates, and some will argue a shady business model; SolarCity has risen to new heights. As I mentioned, they



In her Wall Street Journal piece, " of American taxpayers, government mandates, and some will argue a shady business model; SolarCity has risen to new heights. As I mentioned, they launched their initial public offering (IPO) in December 2012 [ SolarCity (NASDAQ: SCTY) ], which included "underwriters Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse and Bank of America/ Merrill Lynch ."In herpiece, " How Government Is Making Solar Billionaires ," almost a year after their IPO, Allysia Finley, opens with, "Welcome to SolarCity, the latest booming green company that has never recorded a profit."





She also goes on about its founder:

In addition to being the chairman of SolarCity and CEO of Tesla, Mr. Musk is the largest shareholder in both companies. The increase in their stock prices has raised his net worth by more than $5 billion over the past year. Ms. Finley also describes the SolarCity business model: The company's base is a 30% federal tax credit that accrues to investors who provide upfront financing for the rooftop panels that SolarCity installs for customers at no charge. Customers "lease" the panels from SolarCity by paying for the solar power they generate, which is priced below their utility's retail rate. Customers, however, must sign a contract agreeing to cede "any and all tax credits, incentives, renewable energy credits, green tags, carbon offset credits, utility rebates or any other non-power attributes of the system" to SolarCity. The tax credits are passed on to its investors...





Moreover, she notes the various and never-ending state and local incentives that also supports SolarCity. For example rebates, access to school district "green funds," as well as how they benefit from the "net metering" policies that 43 states, including California, have adopted.Lastly, Finley writes, "SolarCity and its competitors also implicitly benefit from energy policies like renewable mandates, fracking moratoriums and greenhouse-gas regulations that drive up electricity prices and enable the company to charge its customers more for solar power..."Just a typical case study in the how the Obama administration rewards his friends, not only with taxpayer cash, but stacking the deck with left-wing policies –– thus the rich get richer and the Left gains more power, leaving the poor and middle class in the dark... pretty soon literally!While SolarCity celebrates it success (), you'll find plenty of outside praise such as this 2013 piece by: " A Solar Power Success Story " and GreenTechMedia, " The Numbers Behind SolarCity’s Success ."Still, it hasn't been sunshine and lollipops, even as they continue to have dark days. Besides some of the damaging information already presented in this blog, shadows lurk over SolarCity, as reflected in the following headlines, which includes predictions of a fall.Two key issues followed by Watchdog.org are important to share. The former is that a "pair of investigations by the Treasury Department and the Justice Department," since 2012 (maybe earlier), "have been looking into claims that SolarCity inflated its cost of goods in order to collect larger tax credits." Unfortunately, there have been no updates on the status of these investigations. Meanwhile, the latter problem for SolarCity entails "shoddy installation, poor customer service and hidden fees."But there are questions too: Why did two SolarCity Corp executives recently reduce their stake in the company; CEO Lyndon Rive and the company’s EVP Seith Weissman? What happens if these green energy government subsidies were to end? I can't answer the former question, but the latter seems unlikely, because SolarCity is stacked with many high-powered entities, which is detailed next.