Fox Smears Another Solar Company: Satcon Edition

Today, Fox & Friends claimed that Satcon, a solar company that recently filed for bankruptcy, received $129 million in “taxpayer cash.” In fact, the company only received small research grants, which enjoy bipartisan support.

Satcon Technology, which makes parts for large solar power projects, recently filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Satcon suffered from diminishing incentives in Europe and competition with European and American vendors in the $7 billion inverter market, but plans to continue operations.

This morning, Fox & Friends' “News By The Numbers” segment featured Satcon:

BRIAN KILMEADE: Next, $129 million. That's how much taxpayer cash went to solar company Satcon technology -- I hope I said that right -- but even that couldn't keep it afloat. It filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy this week.

But "$129 million" is way off the mark. The Wall Street Journal reported that Satcon “has not received the kind of government loans that added a political dimension to the bankruptcy of others like Solyndra and A123,” instead sharing several small Department of Energy (DOE) grants with numerous other companies, some awarded under the Bush administration, to advance various solar grid projects. Satcon also received a $3 million grant from ARPA-E (Advanced Research Projects Agency) , a program with bipartisan support. The Journal pointed out that the “relatively small” research grants are “not out of the ordinary in an industry doing advanced R&D into new energy technologies.”

Distorting and denigrating America's investments in clean energy has become de rigueur at Fox News, where each report of bad news for a solar or wind company is gleefully repeated, whether they received stimulus funding or not.