Plant that got $150M in taxpayer money to make Volt batteries furloughs workers — before a single battery has been produced!
Fox News Excerpt: The 650,000-square-foot, $300 million facility was slated to produce 15,000 batteries per year, while creating hundreds of new jobs. But to date, only 200 workers are employed at the plant by by the South Korean company. Batteries for the Chevy Volts that have been produced have been made by an LG plant in South Korea.
The factory was partly funded by a $150 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy. LG also received sizeable tax breaks from the local government, saving nearly $50 million in property taxes over 15 years and another $2.5 million annually in business taxes. Landing the factory was hailed as a coup when shovels first hit the ground.
“You are leading the way in showing how manufacturing jobs are coming right back here to the United States of America,” Obama told workers at the ground-breaking ceremony. “Our goal has never been to create a government program, but rather to unleash private-sector growth. And we’re seeing results.”
…
The Green Jobs Debacle: ‘Dept of Labor’s IG found that a $500 million program for training people with so-called green skills has so far produced only 1,336 jobs that have lasted over 6 months’
– Ener1, after receiving $118.5 million from DOE, filed for bankruptcy protection
– Evergreen Solar, after receiving millions of dollars from the state of Massachusetts, filed for bankruptcy protection
– SpectraWatt, backed by Intel and Goldman Sachs, filed for bankruptcy protection’
– Beacon Power, after receiving $43 million from DOE, filed for bankruptcy protection
– Abound Solar, after receiving $400 million from DOE, filed for bankruptcy protection.
– Amonix, after receiving $5.9 million from DOE, filed for bankruptcy protection.
– Babcock & Brown (an Australian company), after receiving $178 million from DOE, filed for bankruptcy protection.
– A123 Systems, after receiving $279 million from DOE, shipped some bad batteries and is barely operating. It cut jobs.
– Solar Trust for America, after receiving a $2.1-billion loan guarantee from DOE, filed for bankruptcy protection.
– Nevada Geothermal, after receiving $98.5 million from DOE, warns of potential defaults in new SEC filings.
More here.
…
Watch Sunday 9pm ET: Fox News Special Report: Obama’s Green Agenda
…
Nissan Leaf Battery Life Class Action Lawsuit: ‘Accuses Nissan of concealing Leaf vehicles have a design defect that causes them to prematurely lose battery life & driving range’
…
Former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm on Chevy Volt blames poor sales on conservatives: ‘I cannot believe that everybody doesn’t want to have one of these’
…
Chevy Volt Leases Costing Taxpayers $10 per Gallon of Gas Saved: ‘The majority of Volt Sept ‘sales’ were heavily subsidized leases that are costing taxpayers millions of dollars’
…
Spain the model: ‘Green’ power generation working out so well that the electricity system only needs a $32 billion bailout
…
SoloPower: Another Solyndra in Waiting? ‘San Jose’s SoloPower, seems to be following in Solyndra’s footsteps and threatening to leave taxpayers on the hook for millions more’
…
Watch Now: Climate Depot’s Morano on Fox News on another Solyndra — ‘SoloPower’ set to get $197 million fed loan guarantee: ‘The more the plans fail the more the planners plan’
Morano: The fed govt had pumped in $40 billion in a few short years to renewables. You can create the illusion of prosperity…Yet we are producing barely over 1/10 of 1% of our energy from solar’ — More on SoloPower here.
…
Solyndra 2: Solar panel startup to get $197 million from Uncle Sam: ‘A tiny solar company named SoloPower will flip the switch on production at a U.S. factory’
…