Publication Name
New York Times
Author(s)
Bob Semple
A version of this editorial appeared in print on September 25, 2011, on page SR14 of the New York edition with the headline: The Solyndra ‘Panic’: One company’s failure should not deter robust public investments in clean energy.
In August, Solyndra, a California-based solar panel maker, announced it would file for bankruptcy. The collapse cost 1,100 workers their jobs and American taxpayers $535 million in loan guarantees that Solyndra had received under a Congressionally authorized program to encourage young companies to develop clean-energy technologies.
President Obama had hailed Solyndra as a model investment and the face of “a brighter and more prosperous future.” Republicans have now pounced on the bankruptcy as proof that the loan program is a bust, that the president’s signature green jobs program is a fraud, and that this country’s solar energy business is in terminal decline.
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The United States, which three years ago led the world in investments in clean energy, has now fallen behind China and Germany, which provide far more generous subsidies. The failure of a single company — and anyone who knows anything about transformative technologies knows there will be failures — is no reason to stop our efforts to catch up.
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Read the full editorial, The Solyndra 'Panic,' on the New York Times website.
