Governor Cites Bankrupt Solar Company To Promote His Green Economy
In a recent interview with David Axelrod, Governor Jay Inslee claimed Washington’s recent economic success was due to the “green” economy. He specifically mentioned his book Apollo’s Fire, saying it “has proven to be accurate because we are creating so many jobs.”
We can look at some of the predictions he made and see how accurate they were. Since he focused on economic growth, we can look particularly at the companies he mentioned in his book.
First, he highlighted wind company Gamesa, which he claimed would reinvigorate manufacturing on the “site of a closed Bethlehem Steel plant.”
In 2007, when his book was published, Gamesa stock was trading at $51 a share. Today, it is trading at $14.30, twenty-eight percent of its peak value.
By way of comparison, the S&P 500 traded at $1,549 in 2007 and has increased 61% to $2,496 today.
Second is SunPower, a company he called “the blue chip stock in the solar company field.” He even invested his own money in the company. In October of 2007, when Inslee’s book was released, it traded at $126.47. Today, SunPower trades at $8.43, a loss of 95% of its value.
Finally, he touted thin-film solar company Nanosolar. He lauded the company’s “brilliance,” and said, “the cost is so low that their plant could be producing grid-competitive electricity in a matter of a few years.”
How are they doing today? In 2013, Greentech Media reported, “Nanosolar, the CIGS thin-film solar panel aspirant which produced little but hype and broken promises, is done.” They are bankrupt.
This has been the pattern for Governor Inslee and the environmental left in Washington state. As much as they claim to care about addressing climate change and finding solutions, they invariably support failed approaches and then refuse to learn the lessons of that failure.
People who actually care about an issue don’t behave this way. They demand results and when something fails, they make changes to do better the next time. By continuing to claim his book was “proven to be accurate,” it shows our environmental policy is more about claiming vindication than environmental success.