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Republican Congressman Falsely Claims That ‘Almost All’ Clean Energy Companies Go Bankrupt

DENVER, Colorado — Repeating the false claims from Mitt Romney about the track record of clean energy companies, Rep. Steve Pearce (R-NM) argued last Thursday that “most of those [wind and solar] companies are now bankrupt.”

In fact, the industry is supporting thousands of innovative small businesses, hundreds of thousands of jobs, and leveraging tens of billions in private capital.

The failure rate of green start-ups was a hot topic in last week’s presidential debate after Mitt Romney falsely claimed that half of green firms that had received funding from the stimulus had failed. His campaign later had to walk back that claim.

Speaking with ThinkProgress the day after the debate, Pearce went a step further. “Almost all of them, the wind and solar stuff,” are now bankrupt, the New Mexico congressman claimed.

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PEARCE: I don’t think government should be involved [with PBS]. Otherwise they do like they did on the wind and solar. I think the most powerful turning moment of the debate was when he points out, “you want teachers but you gave $90 billion over to the green energies? What kind of a deal is that?” And most of those companies now are bankrupt. Almost all of them, the wind and solar stuff.

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