Billionaire heiress and Obama bundler Pat Stryker an Abound Solar crony along with parasites Colorado State, Betsy Markey, and Bill Ritter

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"Forbes lists medical heiress and founder of Bohemian Companies/Foundation Pat Stryker as number 331 of its top “400 Richest People in America.” Worth $1.3 billion, the Fort Collins resident could single-handedly fund Abound Solar and still be well above the poverty line." Stryker was key in taking Colorado away from the sleepy GOP.

7/3/12, "House investigating bankrupt solar company backed by Obama bundler and DOE loan," Washington Examiner, Joel Gehrke

"House investigators have asked executives and former executives at Abound Solar, a now-bankrupt solar company that received a $400 million loan guarantee from the Department of Energy, to testify before Congress about the DOE subsidy.

The House Subcommittee on Regulatory Affairs, Stimulus Oversight and Government Spending invited the Abound Solar CEO and former CEO to testify, along with some Energy Department officials after the company announced it is filing for bankruptcy, despite drawing about $70 million of the $400 million available from the DOE loan guarantee....

The DOE loan guarantee was projected to create 1200 permanent jobs.

As in the case of Solyndra, which declared bankruptcy last year, a bundler for President Obama’s campaign has a financial stake in the solar company.

Bohemian Companies, founded by Democratic mega-donor Pat Stryker, invested in Abound Solar in 2008. A year after the investment, but a year before Abound received a loan guarantee, Stryker apparently visited the White House. “The White House did not confirm that the visitor was the Pat Stryker in question and did not provide details about the meeting,” the Sunlight Foundation reported.

Stryker gave $50,000 for Obama’s inauguration and bundled another 87,000 for the event. She also donated $35,800 to the Obama Victory Fund, Sunlight observed.

FEC reports show Stryker donated $145,000 in 2010 to America’s Families First Action Fund (AFFAF) and $75,000 to “Women Vote” operation organized by the pro-choice group, Emily’s List. The Washington Post reported in October 2010 that AFFAF had spent almost $6 million during that cycle on behalf of Democratic candidates only. “Women Vote” is a similarly partisan effort by Emily’s List to “turn out women voters for our pro-choice Democratic women candidates and every Democrat on the ticket.”"

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Stryker, Markey, Abound Solar, Colorado State, and Ritter connected by green:

9/25/11, "Abound Solar’s connections to $400 million," Independence Institute, Amy Oliver Cooke

"Crony capitalism Abound: anatomy of a taxpayer-guaranteed loan"

"Congresswoman Betsy Markey

With the help from Stryker in 2008, Markey beat incumbent republican Congresswoman Marilyn Musgrave in Colorado’s conservative 4^th Congressional District. Abound Solar, Pat Stryker, and Colorado State University are all in the 4^th CD. Between 2008 and 2010 election cycles, CSU employees also donated nearly $27,000 to Markey’s campaigns.

When the Waxman-Markey (named for Congressmen Henry Waxman and Ed Markey) cap and trade bill, which included a national renewable energy standard, came up for a vote, Congresswoman Markey danced around the issue for weeks because it wasn’t a popular bill in the 4^th CD. Ultimately she voted “yes.”

In an interview on my radio show following the vote, Markey cited “green jobs” as one of her reasons. What she didn’t cite was her relationship to Pat Stryker and Abound Solar or the $2,000 campaign contribution she received from Henry Waxman

• the night before the vote.

Shortly after the vote, Abound Solar was part of a group that helped pay for TV ads thanking Markey for saying yes to Waxman’s bill. Todd Shepherd exposed the politically incestuous relationship and suggested:

[T]he connections between Representative Betsy Markey (D, CO-4), billionaire heiress Pat Stryker, and Abound Solar, appear to have all of the fingerprints of the kind of pay-to-play agenda that has left many Americans wondering how they got stuck with unpopular bills such as cap and trade, formally known as Waxman-Markey (named after a different Markey).

Markey also urged the approval of Abound’s $400 million taxpayer-guaranteed loan. The Denver Business Journal reported, “Abound applied for the loan guarantee more than a year ago, and Markey and other members of Colorado’s congressional delegation pushed for approval.”

Colorado State University

Located in Fort Collins, Colorado, CSU fancies itself the “green” university:

“Colorado State University is internationally known for its green initiatives and clean-energy research including alternative fuels, clean engines, photovoltaics, “smart” grid technology, wind engineering, water resources, and satellite-based atmospheric monitoring and tracking systems. It’s also known as a “green” university for its sustainability efforts on campus and abroad.

Abound Solar founders got their start at CSU as the university bragged in a 2007 press release.

Stryker also has a connection to CSU, having donated millions to the university. Furthermore, former CSU president Al Yates became Stryker’s mouthpiece and representative on CoDA. The Blueprint, a must-read book from Adam Schrager and Rob Witwer, details the Yates-Stryker relationship

• along with how democrats won control in Colorado.

Finally, CSU is home to the Center for the New Energy Economy headed by former Colorado Governor Bill Ritter, a renewable energy activist, and funded by private donations, a third of which came from Stryker’s Bohemian Foundation. Ritter now makes $300,000 to promote renewable energy throughout the country."...

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Ed. note: Betsy Markey was finally defeated in Nov. 2010 by a Republican.

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