Thursday, July 9, 2015

Stion falling short.

The woes of Haley green projects continue.  Watchdog.org reported that the Stion plant in Hattiesburg is falling well short of projections.  Steve Wilson wrote:


Stion, a taxpayer-funded solar panel plant in Mississippi, has failed to meet job-creation goals four years after getting a $75 million loan to build a factory in Hattiesburg.

Frank Yang, Stion’s vice president of business development, told Mississippi Watchdog via email the plant employs only 120 workers and is working at half-capacity because of “equipment bottlenecks.” When the plant was announced, it was supposed to employ at least 1,000.

That’s about $625,000 per job, and it’s too much, says Patrick J. Michaels, director of the Center for the Study of Science at the libertarian-leaning Cato Institute. Rest of the article.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

So the taxpayer is paying 75 million for 120 workers.
Hold the politicians accountable. Vote them out of office.
Oh, I forgot Ex Gov. Haley Barbour’s skipped town after fleecing the taxpayers. We'll see how well Kemper succeeds. I got a little something for Haley. Wait let me 1st put my finger down my throat.
1. Strike One Kior Chapter 11 $ 75 million wasted
2. Strike Two Stion Half Dead $ 75 million wasted
3. Strike Three Kemper Half Dead $ 1 Tillion wasted

Once again THANK YOU Haley (Hellious) Barbour.

Anonymous said...

Kemper did not cost a trillion dollars dumbass.

Labor Survey said...

Industrial development does not come with a guarantee. Never did, doesn't now, never will. It's call risk. Bitch all you want to about Barbour. But compare his industrial development activity with that of, say, Ray Mabus who never brought a company to the state.

Anonymous said...

Look on the bright side, Haley and the boyz in his kkklan got ol', I mean old, I mean geriatric Senator Hoochie Koo re-elected.

Anonymous said...

When the Barbour supporters are comparing Bogg Hogg Haley to Ray Mabus you know they've run completely out of bullets.

Development 101 said...

Kemper was not a state supported project.
Kemper has not and will not cost a trillion dollars.
Kemper has not been proven to work - or not to work. Just because Kelly Williams and Associates at Bigger Pie want to say "its not going to work" doesn't mean it doesn't work.
(By the way, Kelly has his own "government supported business" failure from the 80's that could be raised by those that think economic development is a guaranteed concept.)

Looking at other projects - don't care if it was Barbour or Musgrove, or Fordice, or Mabus. Some have failed. Others have been a great success. My first suggestion would be to look at Ingalls. Formerly Litton Industries. I'm kinda glad the state got involved in that project decades ago, and has done some more several times over the ensuing decades.

Glad the Barbour haters on this site try to take another shot. I just disagree - and believe that the overall success, dollar investment and return has been good for the state.

Guess we can all agree to disagree. Except I know that the 'JJ disagreers' will have a hard time agreeing, even knowing it is to disagree.

Anonymous said...

5:42; Pick your own dem. If Mabus won't work for ya, let us know of another. Take your time.

The Yazoo City Fat Man said...

Yup, Haley's Port of the Future to Nowhere has been a colossal BUST.

Anonymous said...

The solar panels are overpriced compared to the competition. Until shit like this is competitive it will always fail.

Anonymous said...

"Industrial development does not come with a guarantee. Never did, doesn't now, never will. It's call risk. "

Agreed. So take that risk with your own money, not money confiscated from me under threat of jail (via taxes). There are people who invest money for a living and they know much better how to calculate whether a risk is worth it or not, and they tend to do a lot better than political flunkies from either party.

Anonymous said...

Wonder how much of all that stimulus,Katrina,and BP money wound up in Barbour’s bank accounts as "contributions" from those that received it .... And why did he all of a sudden drop out of running for President? Too bad the state auditor is obsessed with going after minnows while the Big Fish get away.

Anonymous said...

3:24 - people tend to quit running for president when they realize they are not going to win.

Anonymous said...

STARTUPS, people. Barbour "invested" in startup companies -- the kind that have a 75% chance of failing. "Pre-revenue" companies. Pie in the sky groups that had never made a profit (or a product) before. Companies that couldn't get a loan from a bank because they were too risky.

Barbour turned Mississippi taxpayers into angel investors. No governor, regardless of political affiliation, had ever done that before.

And our legislature voted with him lock step.

Anonymous said...

“I am pleased to welcome Stion to Mississippi, and I thank the company for creating so many high-quality jobs for Mississippi’s workers.”

Haley Barbour
January 4, 2011

"Stion recognizes the skilled, hard-working workforce in our state. I am proud that in six years’ time, 1,000 Mississippians will be producing Stion’s innovative thin-film solar panels in Hattiesburg.”

Haley Barbour
Stion Hattiesburg production facility grand opening
September 16, 2011

"The plant employs only 120 workers."

Frank Yang
Stion VP of Business Development
Email to Mississippi Watchdog
June 30, 2015

And let's not forget who owns the controlling interest in Stion. Yup, it is none other that Haley's old "making gold out of straw" pally Vinod Khosla. You know, the Mr. Left-Mississippi-Holding-the-Bag-for-KiOR guy.

Really is a shame that Mississippi's Governors are term limited. To have a Governor who doubled as an economic development wizard was truly a rich harvest.



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