Where's the Stuff?

"You've talked a lot about the "green energy" movement this week Pete. Wondering if you saw this. The money is not just going to companies that are taking it and running. Where is the equipment?"

Hey folks,

Happy Friday to ya. Time to check the Emails. Remember, you too can be part of the OPNTalk2 Blog, by sending in articles, comments, questions, complaints, whatever, or just say "Hi." The Email is, as always, opntalk@gmail.com. This truly is amazing. It's by John Hayward posted over at Human Events. Just read this.

CNS News reports the not-particularly-surprising news that “An audit conducted by the Energy Department’s Office of Inspector General was ‘unable to locate’ $500,000 worth of equipment purchased with stimulus money by a recipient of funds distributed through the department’s Advanced Batteries and Hybrid Components Program.”

Ah, that wonderful Obama “stimulus.” Will the magic never end? It didn’t produce many jobs, but it certainly created plenty of opportunities for audits and investigations.

What’s the Advanced Batteries and Hybrid Components Program? Well, they got $2 billion of your children’s money to “support the construction of U.S. based battery and electric drive component manufacturing plants.” Sounds like another sure-fire Obama “investment!”

The report doesn’t say exactly what the missing equipment is, or why anyone would bother to steal the useless garbage that has thus far brought America nothing but a string of “green bankruptcies.” Solyndra had robots that could sing Disney songs, so maybe some Obama crony’s daughter has a hydraulic manufacturing arm in her bedroom, serenading her to sleep every night with “When You Wish Upon A Celestial Source Of Renewable Energy.”

The equipment cannot be located because one of the Advanced Batteries and Hybrid Components Program beneficiaries didn’t bother to fill out the advanced, hybrid paperwork “detailing information such as the location of equipment purchased with Recovery Act funds.” The Energy Department refuses to identify the company in question, which means it isn’t Koch Industries.

God help any citizen who fails to complete every last scrap of their advanced hybrid ObamaCare paperwork! But government micro-managers are evidently a lot more relaxed about requiring extensive documentation of how “Recovery Act” funds were spent.

Actually, there could be more than half a million bucks’ worth of hybrid battery whatever missing, because the auditor’s report says that “despite the assistance of recipient officials familiar with the premises and knowledgeable about the purchases made, we were unable to locate 20 of the 37 equipment items sampled. The missing items were valued at approximately $500,000.” It doesn’t sound as if they’ve been able to inventory everythingyet, just a “sample.”

Amusingly, the audit report notes that “Regulations currently require for-profit recipients to follow best commercial practices, but do not define such practices. One recipient in our sample had purchased about $24 million in equipment and services without adequately documenting purchasing decisions.”

So these companies got millions of taxpayer dollars – chump change by our high-rolling President’s standards, but a lot of money down here in You-Didn’t-Build-That country – along with vague instructions to follow undefined practices? Such is life in Obama’s America, where absolute compliance under threat of extra-constitutional penalties is demanded of the little guy, while the well-connected get to make things up as they go along.

{Laughing} I would summit to you, at least the possibility, that there never were any equipment. Most of this money, like the rest of this "Green Movement" money, lined pockets and created political kickbacks. It had nothing to do, nor does it have anything to do, with "Green" technology or saving the planet. The whole thing is a scam. A Money laundering scam.

Have a great Weekend folks. See you Sunday.
Peter

Sources:
Human Events - ENERGY DEPARTMENT LOSES $500K WORTH OF “STIMULUS” EQUIPMENT