I never expect corporations to do anything other than lie, cheat, steal and chase the bottom line. That's their function. Profit seeking above all else.

I expect my government to make good decisions based on the needs of the people. When the government behaves as a corporation, or in cahoots, we got the problems you see now.

Incidentally that's why I don't buy the 'we need a business man in the whitehouse' adverts.

But it really wouldn't matter if this company employed 500, or 5... if only government wasn't so eager to share tax money with them, would it?

I'm less concerned with the actions of these companies than I am with the government employees that condone it.

David - Nailed it.

Just curious i went to Sam Adams fb page to see if he was gloating, sure enough he was:

Solopower Ribbon Cutting! 60-450 new $51k paying jobs for North/NE #Pdx making cutting-edge thin-film photovoltaics http://www.solopower.com/

That sure is a broad range of jobs, maybe 60, maybe 450!

Jo, you must be so happy with a non-businessman who sends our money to Green projects. Green = greenbacks. Only.

"I never expect corporations to do anything other than lie, cheat, steal"

Apparently you're not familiar with local govt.

BTW - There are a couple of honest people that work for disgusting corporations. They even have the decency to spend their paychecks on their families and paying taxes.

It's like the millions of climate refugees we're supposed to be seeing any day now... we urgently need to be building housing for them and we need to funnel tax dollars to certain builders to do it.

Sam L - Never mistake my distaste for the Romney candidacy as support for Obama. I find one only slightly more palatable than the other. I'll vote for neither.

Steve - Oh the martyrdom. My comments were directed toward the failure of government to regulate corporate excess. Corporations function exactly as intended. So don't feel so guilty about selling out.

Lets see, the City funds are only a "backup" to the state loan, but the City is secured by the plant's equipment. Thats certainly clear.

Just to check up on Scam Adams latest, I think I'll do a UCC search at the Secretary of State's office to see if the City really is protected with a financing statement.

Of course, if the company goes bust, what that equipment is worth is problematical.

Scammy got some 'splaining to do.

I did a UCC search at the Secretary of State's online website, using "SoloPower" as the search term.

According to the web site, there are no financing statements filed which mention "SoloPower". None,. Zero. Da nada.

Whatever the City's arrangement with SoloPower and the state, and whatever "security" or lien the City thinks it may have in / on SoloPower's equipment, the Secretary of State's Office apparently has no record of it.

See for yourself:
http://www.sos.state.or.us/search-results.html?q=SoloPower

Maybe the City has some other form of "security" instrument with respect to SoloPower's equipment for its "backup" "guarantee" of the loan, but there doesn't appear to be any record of the usual, normal, customary type of security interest filing , a UCC 1, with the statewide office which records such things.

Not having a UCC 1 filing setting out the security interest, the City might have some serious difficulty recovering on the equipment if this outfit goes belly up.

Scammy has some 'splaining to do.

And the local media outlets n PDX, print and broadcast, need to learn to do their homework in following the dollars and confirming the tall tales too often told by local politicians when touting their economic development "successes".

"Corporations function exactly as intended."

What would you suggest as an alternative? State-controlled enterprises like Randy Leonard and Goldschmidt have setup? Maybe more bank bailouts that put $0 in the average guys pocket? Govt has a high concentration of bought/paid for workers.

I'm not against better regulations and more enforcement of laws against corporate scofflaws, but when I see Obama inviting Immelt of GE and Warren Buffet (his company NetJets is trying to get out of about $600M of taxes), I have to ask - Qui custodet ipsos custodes?

Bog bloggers quoting Juvenal.

Gotta' love it.

"Bog bloggers quoting Juvenal."

Dirty job, but someone's gotta do it.

Lately, the fourth estate seems to have had some skin in the game.

Lotsa FOXtalk here, Lars-like, saying: myopic foresight and antisocial peeve.
Fox Puts Its Solyndra Blinders On Again, SHAUNA THEEL, Media Matters .org, September 28, 2012

Today a Fox News correspondent claimed that if SoloPower, a solar company that may soon tap a federal loan guarantee, failed "the Obama administration would be 0 for 3." In fact, the vast majority of Department of Energy loan guarantees awarded under President Obama have gone to clean energy projects that are still operating and employing thousands.

... only 3 out of 26 loan guarantees dispersed under the Department of Energy's 1705 loan guarantee program have gone to companies that later filed for bankruptcy. One of those three, Beacon Power, is still operating, has repaid most of its loan guarantee, and rehired most of its employees ....

It is true that solar panel manufacturing loans like SoloPower's are riskier than loans for solar generation projects. But Fox failed to mention that over 87 percent of the funds for DOE's 1705 loan guarantee program went to power generation projects .... While the drop in solar panel prices has hurt some solar manufacturers, it has helped solar generation projects.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Citing national security risks, President Barack Obama on Friday blocked a Chinese company from owning four wind farm projects in northern Oregon near a Navy base where the U.S. military flies unmanned drones and electronic-warfare planes on training missions.

It was the first time in 22 years that a U.S. president has blocked such a foreign business deal.

Obama's decision was likely to be another irritant in the increasingly tense economic relationship between the U.S. and China. ... Obama ordered Ralls Corp., a company owned by Chinese nationals, to divest its interest in the wind farms it purchased .... The administration would not say what risks the wind farm purchases presented.

Earlier this month, Ralls sued the national security panel, ... asked for a restraining order and a preliminary injunction to allow construction at the wind farms to continue. Ralls' legal team includes Paul Clement and Viet Dinh, two top law veterans of President George W. Bush's administration. Both men were key players in Bush's aggressive national security operation.

Clement, who was solicitor-general and argued administration positions before the Supreme Court, has since opposed the Obama administration's health care plan and defended the Defense of Marriage Act before the top court.

Dinh, a former assistant attorney general who was the main architect of the Bush administration's anti-terror USA Patriot Act, has lately served as a director and legal adviser to Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation.