Remember all those green energy initiatives the Obama administration has been touting? Well, it turns out that we probably would’ve been better off if we’d just burned the cash.

Solyndra, Inc. was supposed to have showcased the effectiveness of the Obama administration’s stimulus and green jobs initiatives, but instead it has become the center of congressional attention for waste, fraud and abuse of such programs.

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The Energy Department estimated in a March 20, 2009 press release that the loan guarantee would create 3,000 construction jobs and a further 1,000 jobs after the plant opened.

And President Barack Obama and Vice President Joseph Biden each personally showcased Solyndra as an example of how stimulus dollars were at work creating jobs, during appearances at the company over the course of the following year.

Biden personally announced the closure of Solyndra’s $535 million loan guarantee in a Sept. 9, 2009 speech, delivered via closed-circuit television, on the occasion of the groundbreaking of the plant.

The vice president justified the federal government’s investment in Solyndra in front of employees and other dignitaries, including Secretary Chu and former Calif. Gov. Arnold Schwartzenegger, [sic] saying the jobs the company intended to create would “serve as a foundation for a stronger American economy.”

“These jobs are the jobs that are going to define the 21^st century that will allow America to compete and to lead like we did in the 20^th century,” Biden said.

According to Biden’s speech, the $535 million loan guarantee was a smaller part of the $30 billion of stimulus money the administration planned to spend as part of its Green Jobs Initiative.

Obama made similar claims in a May 26, 2010 speech at the plant, but the 1,000 jobs he and Biden touted in their respective speeches failed to materialize.

Instead, Solyndra announced on Nov. 3 it planned to postpone expanding the plant, which put the taxpayers on the hook to the tune of $390.5 million taxpayers**, [sic] or 73 percent of the total loan guarantee, according to the Wall Street Journal.

There’s a reason that Solyndra got the money from the government (aka you, the taxpayers) because no one who looked at the company would put their own money in it. According to SEC filings, the company has never turned a profit.

“Green energy” only becomes profitable by two methods: Either through government subsidies or artificial government restrictions on non-“green” energy projects that hike the price of those sources.

Green energy, like high-speed rail, is a boondoggle.