Green Investments Bad For Government
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By Gary [email protected]
And the fact that he has both Democrats and Republicans up in arms over it tells me he must have done something right.
Of course, he is proposing a $3.8 trillion budget when he knows full well there will only be around $2.6 trillion in revenue available. That’s a problem, but at least he submitted a budget. It’s a starting point. Now we get to watch Democrats and Republicans fight it out.
That’s the way it’s supposed to work.
But with this budget battle as a backdrop, I noticed a little tidbit online that caught my eye.
As our lawmakers haggle over a billion here and a billion there, I saw a story about the Chevy Volt.
What was President Obama’s flagship electric vehicle is a dismal failure. The Volt was supposed to be the poster child of electric vehicles. The vehicle that would electrify the highways of America.
It was a high-tech wonder that was going to save General Motors by creating thousands of green jobs.
The Obama administration’s and GM executives’ only concern was how to keep up with the expected demand.
Billions upon billions of taxpayer dollars were spent to get the plug-in electric car on the road. General Electric, the maker of Volt charging stations, bought 15,000 of the cars. A bunch of municipalities and other government entities used tax dollars to add them to their fleets.
The government showered $7,500 per car in tax credits on Volt buyers. (The Volt costs just north of $40K, so it’s not like the average Volt buyer is on food stamps, by the way.)
The result?
Well, the March sales numbers are in. Sales plunged more than 35 percent from last year to 1,478 units. Meanwhile, GM sold 245,950 total vehicles in March, its best March sales total in five years.
So despite all the hype, free marketing, billions of tax dollars in subsidies and artificial pumping up of the Volt market, the Volt is a flop.
There’s a reason people don’t buy Volts.
The Congressional Budget Office prepared a report last year that showed electric cars are so much more expensive to produce that “the credits would have to be two or three times as large as they are now to make those vehicles cost-competitive” with gas cars.
The report said a plug-in hybrid costs $19,000 more to produce. Over the car’s 150,000-mile life span it would only save $7,000 in reduced fuel consumption.
A Washington Times editorial opines, “Only people who can’t do math buy them.”
Another bit of green automotive news this week had to do with heavily taxpayer-subsidized Fisker Automotive.
It’s pretty much done.
The company laid off 160 employees and most of its staff last week. About 40 people remain, struggling to reach a financial deal with Chinese investors to save it from bankruptcy.
Fisker makes the $110K “Karma” electric sports car.
Fisker enjoyed some $529 million in federal subsidies. (Don’t ask me why the federal government is subsidizing a company that makes $110K electric sports cars.)
Fisker stopped making the Karma – its only model – last year after A123 Systems Inc., the maker of its lithium-ion batteries, filed for bankruptcy.
(Oh, and by the way, those A123 guys? They got a $250 million federal grant. The state of Michigan ponied up a $100 million tax credit plus another $41 million in tax breaks and subsidies. A123’s bankruptcy, of course, leaves taxpayers holding the bag.)
Fisker is out of cash because federal officials – God bless them – froze an Energy Department loan. Fisker is supposed to make the first payment on some of $192 million it borrowed from the government later this month.
Along with looking for an investor, Fisker has hired a big-time bankruptcy law firm to review its options.
Gee, wonder who’s gonna be left on the hook for all those tax dollars if Fisker goes belly up?
Want more green energy news from last week?
Oregon Live reports: SoloPower will cut dozens of jobs from its San Jose, Calif., headquarters as it attempts to get production off the ground in Portland.
The solar panel maker’s ongoing struggles have forced a companywide restructuring and pushed its taxpayer-backed factory in Oregon months behind schedule.
SoloPower got a $197 million federal loan guarantee.
Another solar energy company, Nanosolar, plans to let go of 170 employees at its San Jose headquarters effective Monday. This appears to represent a large majority of its staff. A year ago the company had roughly 200 employees at its new factory. At least Nanosolar received no federal subsidies. It was backed by private investors – a testament to the risk of solar technology.
Greencorruption.blogspot.com is a place on the Internet that tracks green energy boondoggles.
They say:
At the end of 2012, we calculated that “Obama’s green energy failure list” topped 52, meaning that at least $15 billion of “green” taxpayer money is either gone or was at risk.
This estimate – 23 bankruptcies and 29 that were facing difficulties – came from tracking various stimulus related ($100 billion in “green” earmarks) Department of Energy loans, grants and special tax breaks, as well as other alternative energy funds handed out by the Obama administration through various programs and agencies.
The Brookings Institute puts the Obama administrations’ “total government spending (both stimulus and non-stimulus) on green initiatives at $150 billion through 2014.”
I haven’t even touched on the crony capitalism going on in all these billions of taxpayer dollars being squandered on dubious green energy projects.
I haven’t gotten into whose buddy’s company got what federal grant because he made a big contribution to some certain politician. But there’s plenty of that going on as well.
The point in all this is how broken our system of government has become. Since when is it the role of government to be a venture capitalist – and a lousy one at that?
As our elected leaders attempt to hammer out a budget deal over the next few weeks, here’s my advice to them.
Stop sending hundreds of billions of dollars down job-sucking green energy ratholes.[[In-content Ad]]
And the fact that he has both Democrats and Republicans up in arms over it tells me he must have done something right.
Of course, he is proposing a $3.8 trillion budget when he knows full well there will only be around $2.6 trillion in revenue available. That’s a problem, but at least he submitted a budget. It’s a starting point. Now we get to watch Democrats and Republicans fight it out.
That’s the way it’s supposed to work.
But with this budget battle as a backdrop, I noticed a little tidbit online that caught my eye.
As our lawmakers haggle over a billion here and a billion there, I saw a story about the Chevy Volt.
What was President Obama’s flagship electric vehicle is a dismal failure. The Volt was supposed to be the poster child of electric vehicles. The vehicle that would electrify the highways of America.
It was a high-tech wonder that was going to save General Motors by creating thousands of green jobs.
The Obama administration’s and GM executives’ only concern was how to keep up with the expected demand.
Billions upon billions of taxpayer dollars were spent to get the plug-in electric car on the road. General Electric, the maker of Volt charging stations, bought 15,000 of the cars. A bunch of municipalities and other government entities used tax dollars to add them to their fleets.
The government showered $7,500 per car in tax credits on Volt buyers. (The Volt costs just north of $40K, so it’s not like the average Volt buyer is on food stamps, by the way.)
The result?
Well, the March sales numbers are in. Sales plunged more than 35 percent from last year to 1,478 units. Meanwhile, GM sold 245,950 total vehicles in March, its best March sales total in five years.
So despite all the hype, free marketing, billions of tax dollars in subsidies and artificial pumping up of the Volt market, the Volt is a flop.
There’s a reason people don’t buy Volts.
The Congressional Budget Office prepared a report last year that showed electric cars are so much more expensive to produce that “the credits would have to be two or three times as large as they are now to make those vehicles cost-competitive” with gas cars.
The report said a plug-in hybrid costs $19,000 more to produce. Over the car’s 150,000-mile life span it would only save $7,000 in reduced fuel consumption.
A Washington Times editorial opines, “Only people who can’t do math buy them.”
Another bit of green automotive news this week had to do with heavily taxpayer-subsidized Fisker Automotive.
It’s pretty much done.
The company laid off 160 employees and most of its staff last week. About 40 people remain, struggling to reach a financial deal with Chinese investors to save it from bankruptcy.
Fisker makes the $110K “Karma” electric sports car.
Fisker enjoyed some $529 million in federal subsidies. (Don’t ask me why the federal government is subsidizing a company that makes $110K electric sports cars.)
Fisker stopped making the Karma – its only model – last year after A123 Systems Inc., the maker of its lithium-ion batteries, filed for bankruptcy.
(Oh, and by the way, those A123 guys? They got a $250 million federal grant. The state of Michigan ponied up a $100 million tax credit plus another $41 million in tax breaks and subsidies. A123’s bankruptcy, of course, leaves taxpayers holding the bag.)
Fisker is out of cash because federal officials – God bless them – froze an Energy Department loan. Fisker is supposed to make the first payment on some of $192 million it borrowed from the government later this month.
Along with looking for an investor, Fisker has hired a big-time bankruptcy law firm to review its options.
Gee, wonder who’s gonna be left on the hook for all those tax dollars if Fisker goes belly up?
Want more green energy news from last week?
Oregon Live reports: SoloPower will cut dozens of jobs from its San Jose, Calif., headquarters as it attempts to get production off the ground in Portland.
The solar panel maker’s ongoing struggles have forced a companywide restructuring and pushed its taxpayer-backed factory in Oregon months behind schedule.
SoloPower got a $197 million federal loan guarantee.
Another solar energy company, Nanosolar, plans to let go of 170 employees at its San Jose headquarters effective Monday. This appears to represent a large majority of its staff. A year ago the company had roughly 200 employees at its new factory. At least Nanosolar received no federal subsidies. It was backed by private investors – a testament to the risk of solar technology.
Greencorruption.blogspot.com is a place on the Internet that tracks green energy boondoggles.
They say:
At the end of 2012, we calculated that “Obama’s green energy failure list” topped 52, meaning that at least $15 billion of “green” taxpayer money is either gone or was at risk.
This estimate – 23 bankruptcies and 29 that were facing difficulties – came from tracking various stimulus related ($100 billion in “green” earmarks) Department of Energy loans, grants and special tax breaks, as well as other alternative energy funds handed out by the Obama administration through various programs and agencies.
The Brookings Institute puts the Obama administrations’ “total government spending (both stimulus and non-stimulus) on green initiatives at $150 billion through 2014.”
I haven’t even touched on the crony capitalism going on in all these billions of taxpayer dollars being squandered on dubious green energy projects.
I haven’t gotten into whose buddy’s company got what federal grant because he made a big contribution to some certain politician. But there’s plenty of that going on as well.
The point in all this is how broken our system of government has become. Since when is it the role of government to be a venture capitalist – and a lousy one at that?
As our elected leaders attempt to hammer out a budget deal over the next few weeks, here’s my advice to them.
Stop sending hundreds of billions of dollars down job-sucking green energy ratholes.[[In-content Ad]]
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