First Solar

Most people remember the fiasco called Solyndra, a solar panel company started in 2005 with $570 million dollars from the government and went bankrupt in 2011 and the money disappeared. Not having investigated and therefor not having learned a lesson the same thing happened in the $1 trillion dollar Inflation Reduction Act where billions was handed over to First Solar. Since then, First Solar’s stock price has doubled and its profits have soared thanks to new federal subsidies that could be worth as much as $10 billion over a decade. Executives, officials and major investors in First Solar, the largest domestic maker of solar panels, donated at least $2 million to Democrats in 2020, including $1.5 million to Biden’s successful bid for the White House. After he won, the company spent $2.8 million more lobbying his administration and Congress. Now the picture has changed. First solar is facing the same problem that Solyndra faced. They cannot compete with low-cost panels from China. Their stock has dropped from $250 to $150 in the past five months. First Solar has also faced a securities fraud lawsuit, which the company settled for $350 million.