Fracking Claims Another Casualty

Fracking, the controversial method of extracting oil and natural gas, has claimed another casualty. A long time friend of President Barack Obama and Secretary of Energy Steven Chu is reportedly near death. Although the diagnosis is not complete the probable cause of the friend's decline is an arcane and often misunderstood malady first discovered by Joseph A. Schumpeter called creative destruction. Once the darling of Wall Street, First Solar (FSLR) has hemorrhaged more than 100 jobs as its per share price dropped from $175 to around $33 despite being named by Forbes as one of its fastest growing tech companies only a year ago. It clings to survival only on a weak diet of DOE grants. A native of California, as are most solar startups, First Solar once showered its munificence on a bevy of California political upstarts. CEO Michael Ahearn donated $40,400 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and the employees chipped in $37,158 to President Obama and various other Democrat candidates for Congress. First Solar will be missed.