Romney makes surprise visit to Solyndra

Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney holds a news conference outside the Solyndra manufacturing facility, Thursday, May 31, 2012 in Fremont, Calif. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

/ Mary Altaffer

UPDATED 2:18 p.m. ET

(CBS News) FREMONT, Calif. - Mitt Romney made a surprise campaign stop on Thursday at the solar-panel firm Solyndra LLC, where he sought to use the bankrupt company as an example of how he says President Obama is hostile to job creation.

The presumptive nominee's visit to the failed solar-energy plant culminates a week-long push to depict the president as clueless when it comes to handling the economy. By focusing on Solyndra, a company that was selected for a $535 million Energy Department loan-guarantee but later filed for bankruptcy and laid off its entire staff, Romney argued that Obama doesn't understand the free market and has wasted taxpayer dollars.

"President Obama was here to tout this building and this business as a symbol of the success of his stimulus," Romney said. "Well, you can see that it's a symbol of something very different today."

Romney noted a recent Treasury Department inspector general's report that the loan guarantee was "rushed," something he said was done to reward Obama administration supporters running the company.

"It's also a symbol of how the president thinks about free enterprise. Free enterprise to the president means taking money from the taxpayers and giving it freely to his friends," he said.

Republicans have not found evidence to back up claims by some lawmakers that the loan was approved for political reasons. But Solyndra has been a popular punching bag for conservatives, who have used its collapse as a focal point for attacks against the White House's green-energy policies.

Two wealthy outside right-wing interest groups reportedly have spent more than $9 million attacking Obama on the issue. House Republicans also have probed deeply into the company's demise and what the GOP contends has been the Obama administration's obstruction of their efforts.

But polls last year showed that voters did not yet share that outrage. Former California GOP Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has said he considers the debate narrow-minded in a world moving faster toward renewable energy.

Romney's visit to Solyndra was conducted under strict secrecy. It was not on his daily advance schedule and reporters were told not to report his visit there until right before he arrived. The event was held across the street from the company, with Romney positioned on a podium just off the road.

"I think there are people who don't want to see this event occur, don't want to have questions asked about this particular investment, don't want to have people delve into the idea that the president took a half a billion dollars of taxpayer money and devoted it to an enterprise that was owned in large measure by his campaign contributors," Romney said when asked about the secrecy.

Nevertheless, the Obama campaign was ready for the Solyndra salvo. It issued a news release before Romney's visit accusing their rival of ignoring "his own record of using taxpayer money to pick winners and losers--some who were donors to his campaign" when he was Massachusetts' governor.

"The reality is that Solyndra received funding through a Department of Energy program created under the Bush administration - a program that has supported tens of thousands of jobs across the country and is moving forward with investments in innovative projects like the first nuclear plant built in the U.S. in decades and the world's largest wind farm," spokeswoman Lis Smith said.

"In fact, both Republican and Democratic administrations advanced Solyndra's application, and the company was widely praised as successful and innovative both before and after receiving the Department of Energy loan guarantee."

Romney, when asked about the Bush administration's ties to the program, said the decision to single out Solyndra was an Obama adminstration move. "This was a decision to say that the money would go in to Solyndra to campaign contributors, very large campaign contributors, of President Obama," he said. "That had nothing to do with predecessors."

And with Romney making such an issue of Solyndra, he has risked having his own business background opened to even further scrutiny. Democratic National Committee spokesman Brad Woodhouse emailed reporters a Boston Herald article from December that said when Romney was governor, the state handed out $4.5 million in loans to two firms run by his campaign donors that have since defaulted. Woodhouse's email was headlined, "Two Can Play at This Game."

The Obama campaign continues to go after Romney for his record as the CEO of Bain Capital. The president and his team have spent the past several weeks trying to portray Romney as more concerned with profit than job creation, by focusing on companies that were taken over by the venture-capital firm that ended up in bankruptcy and laying off their employees.

Speaking at a fundraiser on Wednesday night at the Carolands mansion in Hillsborough, Calif., Romney sought to turn the tables on Mr. Obama, suggesting that the government's investment in Solyndra was an example of the president trying to be a venture capitalist, but with taxpayer dollars.

"Have you seen Solyndra's corporate headquarters?" Romney asked the crowd of over 300 donors, referencing the bankrupt company's multi-million dollar office facility and plant built with the help of government loans. "That's what happens when government puts in hundreds of millions of dollars into an enterprise."

Romney suggested that by investing in Solyndra, the Obama administration had likely stifled competition in the solar panel industry because other investors would be less likely to fund their own companies when faced with the government as a competitor.

"Who wants to put money in a solar company when a government puts a half a billion into one of its choice?" Romney asked. "So instead of encouraging solar energy, he discouraged it. They don't understand how the free economy works."

[sjc_1]

We have to come to some decisions on how capitalism works in America and what it can do for the country. You can not build a country on self interest...period. Self interest will do whatever it takes for the individual, not the country. If you think a country will prosper through collective greed and selfishness, you are very misguided.

[No_Absolutes]

And you are very uninformed. The titans of American industry were motivated by self interest. No one takes the risk associated with a new business in the hopes of creating jobs for their fellow Americans. They take the risk in order to make money. And if they are successful, the resulting consequence is job creation.

[amerilatino]

So was organized labor and collective bargaining, without which children would still be losing fingers 12 hours a day for pennies on the dollar in sweatshop cotton mills down south. The self-interest arguement can go back and forth all day, but the truth of the matter is that in a democracy, laws are supposed to be created for the benefit of the WHOLE of society, not just for a monied few.

[sharkboy234]

BLACK VOTERS MAKE THE SWITCH TO MITT ROMNEY NOW!

[nygurl1]

Why?

[luadda22]

by slownewsday_6000 May 31, 2012 6:57 PM EDT
"Solyndra never attempted to make cheaper solar panels. "

"They intended to make A COMPETIVE priced panel, at the time."

Make up your mind!
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

What part don't you understand??? In 2005 when Solyndra was formed, silicon was around $300 per kg retail, by the begining of 2012 it was about $29 per kg. What would have been competive pricing in 2005 in compairison with other companies methods of production was unatainable in 2012, therefore Solyndra's method of production (which was different) in competition with others was no longer possible.

[slownewsday_6000]

I'm saying "make up your mind" as to which statement you were trying to make.

Do you not understand you made two conflicting statements?

[slownewsday_6000]

Pardon my imposter, "60000".

It's indiwade/Leftwing_Lunatics proving he's too scared to post under his own name.

[mnguyen4]

Next door to the Solyndra building lies the former huge NUMMI GM-Toyota plant. The latter is now turned into an electric vehicle plant owned by Tesla, funded with government loans and supported by Toyota. What does Mitt Romney have to say about the demise of GM and of Detroit years ago?

I have lived in Michigan and in California for many years, and I know that this man, Mitt Romney, doesn't care about the workers' communities in both of these states nor does he know anything about the economics in manufacturing and in green energy. His Eastern background is in financial capitalism. Heaven help us should he get elected President!

[sjc_1]

China GIVES their solar industry billions every year to help them dominate world markets. This is they reason Solyndra could not compete, we guaranteed a loan and China GAVE their companies money, land and equipment.

The loan guarantee was equivalent to TWO days expense in Iraq. I do not understand all the political ranting when this administration tries to keep us competitive.

Wrong wingers would be up in arms if the Chinese dominated even more industries, but they would oppose any assistance. This does not make ANY sense at all.

[nearl451]

That is really the issue. China knows that green energy will dominate eventually.

We market visioned short-sighted folk can't see past fossil fuels.

[sjc_1]

Take rare earth minerals used for magnets in wind turbines and hybrid car motors. China knows this is important, so they mine and refine the minerals. People like Mitt look for the most profit and will not touch them. How is a country suppose to advance when self interest could not care about the country?

[DebbieCorona]

How much money did the US Taxpayer spend for Romney's Secret Service detail on this? We scream about Obama campaigning on the tax payer dime. This is Romney doing the same thing.

[fedup12]

No one that does the math expects any payoff for 20-30 years.

I personally like the idea of renewable energy and it makes me feel good to support it. Price be damned.

I think right now all the horizontal drilling, shale gas, coal bed methane etal will make the price disparity even greater than before because of an abundance of those fuels. We already have planned power plants changing to natural gas.

I kind of liked the picken plan which was an all of the above approach.

But right now the people that do solar dont do it for the money, they do it because it makes them feel good.

But they will still buy cheap chinese solar panels made in a factory by some guy making less than a buck an hour.

[slownewsday_6000]

The problem in my eyes is the population problem. In 30 years, we will have almost 15 billion people on Earth...

[fedup12]

Slow... There will never be a solution to overpopulation as long as there are groups like catholics around fighting every little contraceptive out there.

But never figuring out how to feed the children they spawn or get them a job.

The economy is supposed to grow all the time. But the world will eventually not be able to handle it.

So I do my part to prolong the agony.

[fedup12]

Solyndra was a huge mistake. Bet Romney wishes he has gone after them instead of GM.

[slownewsday_6000]

Personally, I see all government loans, personal or corporate, to be mistakes. That may just be me, but I see such guarantees as anti-capitalist.

[fedup12]

agreed slow. No place for the feds.

But Sometimes I think of the success that was had by GM and I wonder. Those were real jobs and people that were helped there.

[slownewsday_6000]

by hillzhavays

The states determine who may or may not enter into marriage. If they ban marriage between same sex, it could be struck down as violating equal protection. That is, unless they can put forth a valid argument as to why the ban should stay in place, you idiot.

=====

WRONG!!!

There is no "unless" at all.

.

[slownewsday_6000]

by hillz

A misunderstanding of the facts would look like this:
Retrofitting a factory is common, if you
1) know anything about industrial properties, and
2) if you have $535 million.

===========

Then refute my facts rather than running away.

Oh, right, you can't refute them.