Government investments in green energy projects rack up massive losses, analysis finds

President Barack Obama’s taxpayer-financed “investments” in green energy firms netted huge profits for company executives even as they cost taxpayers millions, a recent Washington Examiner analysis found.

Corporate insiders at publicly traded green energy firms that received taxpayer funding in the 2009 stimulus made more than $60 million selling company stock after the government’s investment.

Top executives in some cases cashed out before seeing their company’s stock value plummet. The sum value of Obama’s “portfolio” of green energy investments has fallen 78 percent since he took office, a level of performance worse than that of green energy firms not receiving taxpayer funding.

Biofuel manufacturer Amyris Inc., for example, was given $24.3 million in taxpayer money to turn plant sugars into diesel fuel. At one point, this helped push its stock price above $30 a share. Today, Amyris has closed two of its three plants, and its stock sells for less than $3. Amyris’ insiders got rich first, though, netting $21 million in stock sales after the firm went public in September 2010.

Solazyme, another biofuel manufacturer, received $21.8 million from Obama’s Energy Department. Its stock once traded at more than $25 a share but now is worth less than $9. Its corporate insiders realized $18.4 million in capital gains before the stock price collapsed.

Corporate insiders at A123 Systems were not as quick to cash out as their biofuel colleagues. The Massachusetts electric-car battery manufacturer received a $249 million grant from Obama’s Energy Department in 2009, before going bankrupt last month. Its stock was worth more than $25 a share when it first went public in September 2009. A123 officers and directors still made more than $11 million in stock sales.

Read more: http://freebeacon.com/post/34820407355/picking-losers-and-losers