Total Failure: Debt-Ridden Spanish Solar Energy Company Files For Bankruptcy

Matt Vespa | April 22, 2016 11:15 AM

It’s Earth Day, folks, and the clean energy stalwarts of the world have another failure to add to their history of ineptitude. Abengoa, a Spanish solar company, has filed for bankruptcy after accruing a massive $16.4 billion debt. It’s a total disaster, and it’s uncertain whether the American taxpayer will get their money back. Yep, as Melissa Quinn reported in the Daily Signal, Abengoa received tens of millions of dollars in taxpayer loans from the Export-Import bank:

According to Ex-Im’s records, the bank authorized more than $300 million in loans and loan guarantees to Abengoa and its subsidiaries, with more than a dozen transactions approved from 2007 to 2015.

Of the $316 million in financing Ex-Im authorized, the bank disbursed $191 million to Abengoa and its subsidiaries, its records show. The bank cancelled the remaining $125 million of outstanding credit, an Ex-Im spokesman told The Daily Signal.

Ex-Im’s board of directors approved financing for four loan guarantees—totaling $112.8 million—to an Abengoa subsidiary on June 29. The bank’s charter expired the next day, on June 30, marking the first time Ex-Im has experienced a lapse in its authority in its 81-year history.

According to the bank’s spokesperson, Ex-Im’s exposure to the solar company totals $66.2 million.

With Abengoa’s questionable financial future, some question whether the green energy company will be able to repay the taxpayer-backed financing it received from Ex-Im.

As with Solyndra–and other greenhouse ventures–this is a bad investment. It always has been, always will be. We’re a nation powered by coal and natural gas. This bid to erase this sector of the economy from the socioeconomic fabric with a $30 billion assistance program to its workers, as proposed by Hillary Clinton, is preposterous. When over 125,000 jobs are at risk of being eviscerated, along with $650 billion in lost economic activity over a decade–conventional wisdom says that maybe this industry forms the bedrock for millions of Americans and their communities. Yet, if you’re a green warrior, screw these people. We’re saving the planet from the phantom threat of so-called global warming, or something.