Solyndra Redux
According to Bloomberg.com, battery-manufacturer A123 Systems, Inc., has filed for bankruptcy.
Under one of its “green” initiatives to encourage the use of electric vehicles, the US government gave A123 Systems a grant of nearly a quarter of a billion dollars – $249.1 million, to be precise – in 2009 to build a US factory. (Thankfully, A123 systems appears to have “only” managed to burn through about $129M of the grant before going belly-up; the rest is apparently still in the US Treasury.) They also got $125M in Michigan state tax credits to build the factory.
The factory opened in 2010, in Michigan. But the firm couldn’t seem to make a suitable product. Costs of recalling batteries it supplied to electric-car maker Fiskar seem to have nailed the company’s finances badly enough to force bankruptcy.
I don’t exactly think this is what Steve Miller was thinking about in 1976 when he wrote “Take the Money and Run.” But maybe it’s apropos as a theme song for the current administration’s “green” policies.
Category: Dumbass Bullshit, Economy
Brings a whole new meaning to “Batteries not included.”
I have written elsewhere that I am convinced that ALL of these taxpayer-subsidized “green energy” programs are nothing more than one giant money-laundering scheme by the Obama administration. They take OUR money and “invest” it in companies designed or intended to fail, gin up a bunch of fake bills & creditors and siphon the money back in the Democrat’s pockets.
It’s the same way the mob does it. I see this current administration as just a legalized version of the Chicago mob.
The problem is that these monsters also staff the DoJ, so good luck with any investigations, eh?
And yet, the so-called green companies that are successful, that have not borrowed money from the government or received ‘grants’ from the government, are chugging along just fine.
But then, they were started long before Bo stepped up and made a photo op out of whatever took his fancy.
The government has the means to back research into these technologies without attempting to finance companies. Direct investment is clearly a failed strategy, but investment in research through grants to Universities, through NASA, through research grants to research scientists have yielded solid results throughout the years.
Investing in energy resources that don’t destroy the water and air is not a bad national policy when done through research. When done through direct investment it should not be a government program, but a venture capital program. That requires a business model that works, instead of a business model that creates a product where there is no market and attempts to build a new market where one is not wanted, and quite possibly not yet needed. We need to use the fossil fuels we have while we create a policy that addresses energy independence beyond the natural quantities of fossil fuels on our own soils.
Creating an energy independent nation removes the necessity of addressing the interests of the middle east. And makes the oil under the Saudi desert irrelevant. That’s not a bad goal to aspire towards ultimately.