The news comes just weeks after a separate company that got nearly $200 million from the government to develop hybrid vehicles folded. That fly-by-night company, Fisker Automotive, had been heavily touted by the administration as an innovator that would develop two lines of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles that could run up to 300 miles on a rechargeable Lithium-ion battery. Before doling out the cash, Obama’s Energy Secretary assured the cars “will save hundreds of millions of gallons of gasoline and offset millions of tons of greenhouse gas emissions by 2016.”

Instead the southern California startup manufactured a measly 2,700 vehicles, sold a laughable 2,000 and failed to build one for nearly a year before laying off three quarters of its employees. That’s after getting $192 million from Uncle Sam. Highly unlikely that any of the money will ever be recovered since Fisker is almost certainly headed for bankruptcy. Last year Judicial Watch sued the Obama administration for documents related to the Fisker scandal but there appears to be a cover up of epic proportions. Check out the mostly blacked out document the administration provided as part of the lawsuit.  

This week’s green-energy fleecing du jour is like a pathetic sequel to the Fisker scandal, except the hemorrhaging got plugged sooner, after only $50 million. It involves another startup called Vehicle Production Group (VPG) that makes special vans for the disabled that run on compressed natural gas. Here’s how the Obama administration justified funding this experiment with public dollars: “This project invests in a socially and environmentally responsible product that will create new jobs, promote the use of alternative fuels, and help the U.S. maintain its competitive edge in the automotive industry.”

Instead VPG has ceased operations and fired almost all of its employees, according to a news report. The same story quotes a Republican congressman saying that VPG’s closing is another sign the clean-car program is a failure and a burden on taxpayers. No kidding! Instead of filling the ozone with hot air, why not do something about it? “We don’t have a good record and it needs to stop,” said the congressman, Jeff Flake of Arizona, who not surprisingly failed to offer any concrete solutions.

It’s a sure bet that Obama’s green ventures will continue swindling taxpayers because the administration has doled out hundreds of millions of dollars for a number of projects. The painful consequences extend beyond the car industry. Remember Solyndra, the northern California solar panel company—bankrolled by Obama fundraiser George Kaiser—that folded after getting $529 million from the government?

Despite the “serious concerns” of U.S. Treasury officials about the risky infusion, a federal audit exposed how the controversial deal was suspiciously rushed through for a politically-connected entrepreneur that had raised large sums for Obama. Judicial Watch is investigating the Solyndra scandal and has sued the administration for records related to the shady deal.

When the administration was making its case to invest taxpayer dollars in the southern California startup company, Fisker Automotive, it assured that thousands of much-needed jobs would be created in the region which has been hit hard by unemployment. It also touted Fisker’s innovative plans to develop two lines of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles that could run up to 300 miles on a rechargeable Lithium-ion battery.

So when the Department of Energy (DOE) announced in 2010 that it would give Fisker $528.7 million for its experiment, Vice President Joe Biden—well known for his many gaffes—put the company on a pedestal, saying “the story of Fisker is a story of ingenuity of an American company, a commitment to innovation by the U.S. government and the perseverance of the American auto industry.” Then he credited the “real dedication by this administration” for helping “America’s auto industry reclaim its top position in the global market.”

He wasn’t the only one to put his foot in his mouth. Pushing for the multi-million-dollar allocation a year earlier, Obama’s Energy Secretary (Steven Chu) guaranteed Fisker would develop two lines of plug-in hybrids that “will save hundreds of millions of gallons of gasoline and offset millions of tons of greenhouse gas emissions by 2016.” Furthermore, Secretary Chu said approximately 5,000 jobs would be created or saved. “This investment will create thousands of new American jobs and is another critical step in making sure we are positioned to compete for the clean energy jobs of the future,” Chu said.

Turns out that, after taking $192 million from Uncle Sam, Fisker has laid off three quarters of its employees and the feds have finally acknowledged that it’s likely on the verge of bankruptcy. One California newspaper reports that Fisker failed to make a $10 million first payment on the $192 million government “loan.” The company has manufactured only 2,700 vehicles, sold a laughable 2,000 and hasn’t built one since July, according to the story.

This week the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform will hold a hearing (“Green Energy Oversight: Examining the Department of Energy’s Bad Bet on Fisker Automotive”) to address the administration’s “bad bet” on the startup company. One committee member, a congressman from Ohio, says the Obama administration owes American taxpayers an explanation as to why this deal was made in the first place and what action will be taken to minimize the loss that taxpayers face.

Undoubtedly taxpayers will take a huge hit. This already happened with Solyndra, the northern California solar panel company—bankrolled by Obama fundraiser George Kaiser—that folded after getting $529 million from the government. Despite the “serious concerns” of U.S. Treasury officials about the risky infusion, a federal audit exposed how the controversial deal was suspiciously rushed through for a politically-connected entrepreneur that had raised large sums for Obama. Judicial Watch is investigating the Solyndra scandal and has sued the administration for records related to the shady deal.

This may sound like the sort of juvenile stuff that goes on among adolescents in high school, but it’s actually taking place at the Department of Energy, the cabinet-level agency responsible for the nation’s policies involving nuclear material and energy. Worst yet, American taxpayers are funding this nonsense.

The shameful story comes from a group of independent journalists—known as Watchdog.org—that cover local government activity across the nation. A few months ago, the consortium published the findings of an investigation that revealed a government official’s salary at the DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Colorado was an astounding $1 million.

Evidently, this upset one of the overpaid official’s subordinates who spent work hours firing threatening tweets to reporters from her government computer. “Have you ever felt like going on a murderous rampage?, the NREL staffer, Kerrilee Crosby, tweets. “Start at @WatchdogCO ‘s offices. They perpetuate lies like this.” The 34-year-old employee goes on to say the reporters “deserve to die.”

It turns out that the DOE encourages employees to use government phones and computers to access personal social media accounts during work hours. In fact, the agency even has a written manual devoted to social media policies, detailing behavior, etiquette and government confidentiality issues that staff should follow when tweeting, posting on Facebook or blogging.

There’s little doubt the agency is promoting spending work hours engaging in this silliness. Just read this excerpt from the DOE policy; “Social media sites provide opportunities for workers to interact, brainstorm, explore ideas, and encourage or challenge peers and can support the activities of discovering, innovating, collaborating, disseminating, and learning.”

This is stuff the government doesn’t want taxpayers to know, but the targeted journalists fired off a public records request to obtain the manual with the help of Judicial Watch. The agency initially refused to provide the information, stating that the NREL is not a government organization because it’s separately managed and therefore its social media policy is an “internal document.”

The government will invoke any ridiculous reason to avoid handing over documents that help illustrate its stupidity. There is no doubt that the NREL, created during the Jimmy Carter administration to invent energy alternatives, is part of the U.S. government and operates with DOE funding. In fact, employees email addresses have a .gov suffix and the American public pays their salary.

The downside is that U.S. taxpayers financed the project thanks to the generosity of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which has made its primary mission under Obama to bring environmental justice to poor and underserved communities nationwide. Though this isn’t officially part of that multi-million-dollar initiative it helps fulfill similar goals, albeit south of the border.

It’s the first center of its kind on the Mexican border region and it will ignite “urban greenscaping in Tijuana,” according to an EPA announcement that also reveals Uncle Sam doled out $93,000 to launch Mexico’s green transformation. The cash actually went to a group called Tijuana Calidad de Vida (Tijuana Quality of Life) so that it can develop landscape grade compost from landscape cuttings supplied by the municipality. Part of the money will be used to “raise community awareness on the benefits of composting and a path to zero waste.”

It’s all part of a bi-national program—largely funded by U.S. taxpayers, of course— to protect the environment and public health in the U.S.-Mexico border region, consistent with the principles of sustainable development. This includes a focus on cleaning the air, providing safe drinking water, reducing the risk of exposure to hazardous waste and ensuring emergency preparedness along the southern border.

How will Tijuana’s $93,000 composting center benefit Americans? It will help protect the environment on both sides of the border by reducing waste within the shared San Diego/Tijuana watershed that would have gone to landfills, according to an EPA regional director. It will also help build “municipal expertise on compost practices” to divert reusable, organic material from landfills.

Mexican officials celebrating the new urban composting center south of the border this month call it a “demonstrative project” that will benefit Tijuana’s parks and gardens with organic materials. An invitation to the public announcing the center’s big inauguration last week boasts that it’s all in the name of “una Tijuana Sustentable!” or a sustainable Tijuana. It should include; “gracias tio Sam” or thank you Uncle Sam.

It involves the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and its administrator, Lisa Jackson, the Obama appointee who has dedicated tens of millions of dollars to an “environmental justice” movement that helps minority communities get green. Each year the agency doles out cash to leftwing community groups that help poor, minority and indigenous people increase recycling, reduce carbon emissions through “weatherization,” participate in “green jobs” training and avoid heat stroke.

The thought of this major government agency conducting secret operations is downright scary not to mention illegal. But that could be exactly what’s going on at the EPA and now the agency’s watchdog is investigating at the request of Congress. In a memo addressed to Jackson and other high-ranking EPA mucky mucks, the agency’s inspector general announces its plans to begin an audit of “electronic records management practices.”   

“Our objective is to determine whether EPA follows applicable laws and regulations when using private and alias email accounts to conduct official business,” the EPA Inspector General writes. The watchdog will specifically look into whether the agency promoted or encouraged the use of private or alias email accounts to conduct official business and whether employees comply with federal records management requirements pertaining to electronic records from private or alias email accounts.

The scandal was initially exposed by a researcher preparing to write a book. In thousands of emails Jackson appeared to use the name Richard Windsor on an official account that she utilized to conduct agency business. The researcher figured it out because he dug up an EPA memo indicating that alias email accounts were created by a former agency head and it appeared that this was common practice at the agency.

This clearly interferes with transparency, according to a Florida congressman who chairs the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations. “It is possible that other EPA officials are also using secondary email accounts and aliases for official business, and this could complicate the ability of Congress to conduct its oversight responsibility over the EPA,” said the lawmaker, Cliff Stearns, who represents north Florida.

Even scarier is how this widespread cheating was discovered at a facility— the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee—the feds claim has the “most stringent security in the world.” In fact, the compound is often referred to as the “Fort Knox of Uranium.”

A few months ago an 82-year-old Catholic nun along with two other seniors managed to penetrate the facility and go undetected by security for two hours. The nun, a renowned antinuclear activist, and her pals—one 63 and the other 57—were armed with flashlights and bolt cutters. Once inside, the trio of protesters splashed blood around the nuclear complex and hung banners outside its walls.

The shameful breach fueled calls for an internal investigation. After all, the Y-12 National Security Complex is the country’s main storage facility for bomb-grade uranium and it makes uranium parts for every warhead in the U.S. nuclear arsenal. Old weapons are also dismantled at the compound, which claims to “maintain the safety, security and effectiveness of the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile.”

The Department of Energy (DOE) is responsible for managing the Y-12 lab’s operations and for keeping it secure. Besides having a sophisticated $500 million security system that includes high-tech cameras and sensors, the compound has a substantial staff of guards and the property is surrounded by huge security towers and special fences.

A few days ago the DOE Inspector General revealed in a report that the guard force at the Tennessee lab is compromised because officers and supervisors share advance copies of test materials. That means the guards aren’t necessarily qualified to do this delicate job of protecting the compound. Even worse is that the advance test copies came from a DOE official, the report says, and that the cheating has been going on for years and isn’t necessarily limited to the Oak Ridge facility.

Circulating copies of key tests in advance to the contractor and employees responsible for ensuring that such a vital site is adequately protected against terrorism was “inexplicable and inexcusable,” the DOE’s inspector general found. “Security of the Nation’s most sensitive nuclear material storage and processing facilities must not be left to chance.”

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) scientist (Richard Lindzen), coined “global warming skeptic” by the feds, was never the less given the opportunity to present his findings at a recent government-funded “climate security” series that addressed the many ills of climate change. The event was sponsored by a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) lab that conducts scientific research to help detect, repel, defeat or mitigate national security threats.

Not surprisingly Lindzen, an atmospheric physicist and professor of meteorology at MIT, was outnumbered by dozens of scientists that share the Obama Administration’s vision on global warming. Here is a perfect example of what Lindzen was up against; a senior scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research who proclaimed that global warming is unequivocal and will compromise national security when island and coastal countries disappear or sink below sea level because of rising oceans.

Lindzen countered this, saying that there is little evidence that changes in climate are producing extreme weather events and that too much is being made of climate change by researchers seeking government funding. Their data and methods don’t support their claims, he assured, offering detailed scientific information to back his theory. He discounted the notion that climate change can hurt national security, pointing out that “historically there is little evidence of natural disasters leading to war….”

In the last few years a variety of government-funded studies have warned that global warming will make food and water dangerous, cause mental illness, cancer and threaten national security. In fact, under the Obama Administration, a consortium of scientists from several government agencies—including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the State Department and National Institute of Environmental Health Science—have confirmed that global warming is one of the “most visible environmental concerns of the 21st century.”

Just a few months ago, a group of bilingual and “binational” researchers from the U.S. and Mexico determined that global warming will threaten the water supply in a southern border region. Why is that? Because parts of Arizona and Mexico form the “front line of ongoing climate change” and that means “water vulnerability” caused by “climate variability and change.” Combined with vulnerability from urbanization, industrialization and agriculture intensification this will threaten the water supply.  

That’s nothing. Global warming is much worse than previously imagined because the ocean actually masks the true rate of damage for periods as long as a decade. At least that’s what a recent government study from the National Science Foundation (NSF) says. According to this logic the crisis is way more severe than what it appears because the sea is storing the heat that damages the earth, making it appear as if there is a sort of hiatus in global warming when there really isn’t. When this ocean-stored heat will show its evil face will probably be the subject of the next government-funded study

Seems like a bad nightmare though it’s really happening and costing American taxpayers huge sums of money. It turns out that the Department of Energy (DOE) has lost at least $500,000 worth of equipment for a special alternative energy program that got nearly $2 billion from the president’s disastrous stimulus. Remember, the $787 billion plan that was supposed to jump start the economy and put Americans back to work but instead lost billions to fraud and abuse?

In any case, it turns out that the DOE has blown more than half the money— around $1.2 billion—earmarked for the special “advanced batteries and hybrid components program” that is supposed to “support the construction of U.S. based battery and electric drive component manufacturing plants.” In all, 30 manufacturers (undoubtedly, politically connected) got cash from the Obama DOE to complete the task.

The DOE admits that it is “unable to locate” the half a million dollars in equipment that has mysteriously disappeared from a firm that got one of Uncle Sam’s generous grants. You can’t make this stuff up. It’s all documented in a DOE Inspector General report made public just a few days ago. It gets better; the DOE refuses to disclose the name of the company that received stimulus cash and lost the half a million dollars in equipment.

This brings back really bad memories of the Solyndra scandal, though a much larger chunk of cash was lost in that brilliant venture. Despite the “serious concerns” of U.S. Treasury officials, the Obama Administration gave the now-defunct northern California solar panel firm $535 million. The fly-by-night company was bankrolled by Obama fundraiser George Kaiser and the president justified the taxpayer allocation by saying it promoted green energy.

Judicial Watch is investigating the Solyndra scandal and has sued the Obama DOE and Office of Management and Budget to obtain records involving the deal. Last fall JW submitted Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests seeking records from both agencies, but the DOE says it’s reviewing documents in preparation for public release. The Office of Management and Budget has totally blown off the request. This indicates that the administration is on cover-up mode.

No one really knows how many of these failed, taxpayer-funded green energy projects are out there. In fact, most Americans probably had no idea about this recently exposed, multi-billion-dollar DOE program that, not surprisingly, has turned out to be a disastrous money pit. The DOE Inspector General, the agency’s watchdog, suggests that more should be done to “ensure recipients adequately safeguard equipment purchased with federal funds.”

What an innovative idea! Here is another good one that evidently has not occurred to the DOE; “Given the size of the program, we emphasize the importance of maintaining adequate documentation to support all purchasing decisions and continuing to ensure assets purchased with Federal funds are safeguarded.”