Solar Power Innovator Solyndra Files For Bankruptcy

Commenting on the degree of support Solyndra, and other US renewable energy firms, get from the government, Phaedra Ellis Lamkins of Green For All (and sometimes TreeHugger contributor), said in a press statement:

Capitalism's survival of the fittest only works on a level playing field. Solyndra - like many other clean energy companies - are competing evenly in the United States, but on an extremely slanted field globally. Solyndra was facing, in particular, Chinese companies that received massive subsidies from the Chinese government. The investment our government made in Solyndra wasn't a hand-out; it was an attempt to help balance the playing field. But that attempt was one-tenth, one-twentieth what its Chinese competition saw. That Solyndra competed at all is remarkable and laudable. We can choose to compete in the global economy, or we can choose to import our solar panels - and our batteries, and our water, and everything else - from overseas.