Ener1: A lemon by any other name is still a lemon...

As a candidate for President of the United States, Ronald Wilson Reagan famously observed of his opponent, "Well, there you go again."  Reagan, of course, was pointing to Jimmy Carter's advocacy of liberal, socialist economic policies that are now the law of the land.

Fast forward to 2010 when Ener1, an electric car battery company that the Obama administration awarded a stimulus grant to expand its operations, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after not being able to repay its debts.

But that wasn't an oddity.

First there was Solyndra, the California solar panel maker, entered bankruptcy court after receiving taxpayer-guaranteed loans of $535M.

Second there was Beacon Power, the Massachusetts energy-storage firm that entered bankruptcy almost simultaneously with Solyndra, after receiving $43M in loans.

Third---and just days after President Obama's State of the Union Address, in which he acknowledged that some of those technologies that received federal funding would inevitably fail---there was Ener1, which received $118M in stimulus grant money.  Inextricably tied to the fortunes of the now-bankrupt Norwegian car maker, Think, Ener1's bankruptcy should not have caught anyone by surprise.

According to a Washington Post article, what is noteworthy about the Ener1 failure is how the White House forecasted that the Ener1 grant would enable the company to hire 1.4k workers by 2013.  Nice promise but a big surprise: The simple fact is the Ener1's more recent workforce report consisted of 350 workers.

What is also noteworthy is that in a September 2010 report, the White House featured Ener1's subsidiary, Ener­Del, as one of the "100 Recovery Act Projects that are Changing America."  Nice promise but a big surprise: Chapter 11.

Then, too, in his 2011 State of the Union address, President Obama promised that his administration would help put 1M electric vehicles on the nation's roads by 2015.  Guess who visited Ener1 the day after the President's speech?  Yes, none other than Vice President Biden.  Nice promise but a big surprise: 1M electric vehicles will not be on the nation's roads in 2015.

"Mr. Vice President, do I have a deal for you!"

While many pundits are focusing on the financial cost associated with these losing propositions and superadded to them the ballooning deficit associated with Obamacare, The Motley Monk can only say, "Well, there you go again!"


Let the discussion begin...




To read the Washington Post article, click on the following link:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obama-backed-electric-car-battery-company-files-for-bankruptcy-protection/2012/01/26/gIQAA5T3TQ_story.html?hpid=z