Solyndra Bankruptcy Pales in Comparison to Failed Military Projects

By Climate Progress
Sun, 19 August 2012 00:00

Yesterday the Air Force announced that its X-51 Scramjet Engine Demonstrator called the WaveRider — a hypersonic jet designed to travel up to 3,600 miles per hour — crashed into the Pacific Ocean 15 seconds into a test flight.

This is the second failed test in a row for the WaveRider — an aircraft technology that the military has already spent between close to $300 million on developing. And that’s just on one program. We’ve been working on hypersonic flight programs since the 1960?s.

But even with more than a quarter billion dollars worth of hardware now sitting in the Pacific Ocean (chump change for the Pentagon), we haven’t heard a peep from anyone in Washington on the crash. No calls for a Congressional investigation, no outrage about hundreds of millions of dollars sinking in 15 seconds, no public flogging of Defense Department leaders.

But when a few cutting-edge clean energy companies crash after getting support from the federal government, they’re used by the House Republican majority as a tool to question the very idea of making strategic investments in cleantech.

It’s been almost a year since Solyndra, the solar manufacturer that received a $527 million loan guarantee, went bankrupt. Since then, House lawmakers have held 10 hearings, acquired more than 300,000 documents, issued two subpoenas, and likely spent more than a million dollars on the investigation.

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http://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Solyndra-Bankruptcy-Pales-in-Comparison-to-Failed-Military-Projects.html