Embarrassing Biden-Solyndra Video Surfaces

VICE PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN:  You know, when we took office back in January, job losses were staggering. There were 741,000 jobs lost that last January, 681,000 in February, 652,000 in March of this year. We knew we had to act. And 200 days ago we passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act which we're going to talk a little bit about today.

But the one thing I want to say is the Recovery Act is working and you're going to see it work right on that site. We're making progress with substantially less job loss than we saw a few months ago. The numbers reported today show 216,000 people lost their jobs last month, much too high but roughly two thirds of the job loss we saw on a monthly basis when we took office and the lowest that it's been in a year.

Now, I want to be clear about something. Less bad is not good. That's not how President Obama and I measure success. We're not going to be satisfied any more than the Governor is or anyone else is until we start adding, not losing, thousands of jobs per month. But one of the tools to get us to that point is the Recovery Act.

Experts from Moody's to Goldman and others have already pointed out that we've created or saved between 500,000 and 1 million jobs in the last 200 days. Another way of putting it, there would have been another 500 to a million jobs lost had we not had this Recovery Act up and running.

Part of our plan is to make sure that as we create these jobs we create jobs in the future like the ones you're creating, jobs you can raise a family on, green jobs, jobs that will serve as a foundation for a stronger American economy. Which is why it's so important we invest in Solyndra and invest in what Solyndra is doing. Not just to get us through today but to power our way to a much brighter tomorrow.

You know, there was a 19th Century Scottish author and political reformer named Samuel Smiles. He once said and I think the quote is appropriate here, he said, “Hope is like the sun, which, as we journey toward it, casts the shadow of our burden behind us”

Well, that's exactly, exactly what we're doing here today. We are journeying, in a sense, closer and closer to the sun, to a more solar powered America. And as we do, we're leaving a shadow of a less efficient, more damaging past behind us.

And I'm really happy, along with the Secretary, to announce today that we've closed a $535 million loan guarantee for Solyndra, more than half a billion dollars. This is the first in what the Secretary is going to be announcing the Department of Energy will be making available for more than $30 billion in loan guarantees the Recovery Act is providing and will provide to American companies that are leading the way to a new, clean energy future.

The loan to Solyndra will allow you to build a new manufacturing facility and with it almost immediately generate 3000 new well paying construction jobs. And once your facility opens, there will be about 1000 permanent new jobs here at Solyndra and in the surrounding business community and hundreds more to install your growing output of solar panels throughout the country.

It's important.  It's important because these jobs are going to be permanent jobs. These are the jobs of the future.  These are the green jobs. These are the jobs that won't be exported. These are the jobs that are going to define the 21st Century and the jobs that are going to allow America to compete and to lead like we did in the 20th Century.

But beyond that, by doing this work you're also reducing carbon emissions just at the plant you're about to build by more than 100 metric tons, folks. That's the equivalent    I know you know it but the rest of America may not    that's the equivalent of pulling 25 million cars off the road. They're exactly the kind of steps we need to take to make our air cleaner, to save money and to reduce our dependence on foreign oil.

To quote another famous person, Galileo, he once said, "The sun, with all the planets revolving around it and dependent on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as if it had nothing else in the universe to do."

Well, folks, there is still a whole lot more we can do with the sun and you're leading the way. And out there at Solyndra, you guys have figured it out. You've figured out how to harness the sun's power for a better, more efficient, more prosperous future for all of
America and in the process you're creating more jobs.

I want to thank you all.  Thank you, Governor.  Thank you, Mr. Secretary.  And may God bless America and may God protect our troops. (Applause)

SECRETARY STEVEN CHU:  OK, I guess it's my turn.  As Vice President Biden announced, the Department of Energy is very pleased to finalize the $535 million loan guarantee to Solyndra today. I want to congratulate Dr. Gronet and Solyndra on this award and thank you all for working so closely with the Department of Energy on what will be a shared success story.

I want to thank Vice President Biden for being part of this event. I also want to thank Senator Feinstein, who is here today but I don't see her, so I'll thank her anyway, Senator Boxer and, of course, Governor Schwarzenegger for their leadership to develop a clean energy economy in California.

As you can see, if you build a better solar panel, the world will beat a path to your door. Building a smarter solar panel is exactly what Solyndra has done. Compared to traditional solar panels, Solyndra's innovative thin film systems produce more energy for less money and less hassle.

To prove the world is clamoring for a clean energy economy is the $2 billion worth of pending solar orders. Because of this loan guarantee, those orders will be filled by American workers.

You hear a lot these days about green jobs. Today we're seeing them in action, whether it's running a backhoe or pouring concrete or building walls or installing machinery. And the jobs will keep coming. The first jobs created will be those construction jobs, up to 3000 of them. And, in fact, Solyndra says it's poised to hire up to a hundred people within an hour of getting the check. Is that really true? (Laughter)  

Next will be high tech manufacturing jobs    I think they're already hired    up to a thousand positions once the plant is operated.  And then there will be installation jobs. Hundreds of men and women will be climbing on to roofs across the country. Finally, there will be maintenance and upkeep jobs that will keep the panels running smoothly. And here is the best part, none of these jobs can be outsourced.

At the Department of Energy we've moved aggressively to get the money out of the door, to help with economic recovery but this effort is more about recovering what we had. It's about laying a new foundation for our future prosperity.

The solar energy industry is growing by leaps and bounds. It is a key growth industry for our future but right now the United States is being left behind. Americans invented the modern solar panel. I will actually go a little bit further and say, since I worked at Bell Labs for nine years, Bell Labs invented the solar panel. And as late as 1995 we've produced nearly half of the world's supply. But since then countries like China have grown in an innovative fashion and our market share has fallen to less than 10%.
It's time to rev up the American innovation machine and reclaim our lead on clear energy. When we do this, no country in the world will be able to out work, out compete and out innovate us.

This factory will be a strong start. The funding announced today will help finance production of enough solar systems to power 24,000 homes a year, or more than half a million homes over the projected 30 year lifetime.

But this is only the beginning. Solyndra is the first recipient of a loan guarantee from the Department of Energy since the 1980s and we're going to make many more awards in the weeks and months ahead. We at the Department are moving with unprecedented speed to help create new jobs that can't be outsourced and to help America's most promising companies grow at a time of tight credit and hesitant investors. We'll get private capital off the sidelines into the game.

Overall, we expect the Department of Energy's loan guarantees will leverage more than $100 billion in clean energy investments in the best projects in the country.

That's what our loan program is all about. We're helping turn ground breaking ideas like Solyndra's into many more ground breaking ceremonies like this one. By investing in clean energy we will create jobs and industries America needs to begin a new industrial revolution.

So thank you.  And it's with great pleasure I introduce to you, although you know, I would say the green giant of California's green economy.