What do we taxpayers get for “only” $249 million? A battery company that has to replace the batteries that it has already delivered. A123 Systems of Waltham, MA, received $249 million grant from the Department of Energy (DOE) to build the plant, located in Livonia , MI, as part of a strategy to bring battery manufacturing to the U.S.
The grant A123 received is part of a $2.4 billion DOE program, which will be matched by $2.4 billion in private investment, and will go to battery and component suppliers as well as the big US automakers, General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler. The “Big 3” received over $400 million for manufacturing and to test the performance of electric vehicles, such as the Chevy Volt. Let’s see… Chrysler went bankrupt, killing its electric car and costing us $70 million, and we all know how successful the Chevy Volt is. Can DOE pick ’em, or what?
A123 Systems will spend $55 million replacing defective batteries it manufactured. The announcement was the latest setback for A123 that reported earlier this month that it lost $85 million in the fourth quarter of 2011, largely because Fisker Automotive had ordered fewer battery packs than previously expected. Fisker is one of A123 Systems’ largest customers. Yes, that is the same Fisker that received a $529 million loan from DOE, only to have it pulled after Fisker has already spent $190 million. And, yes, the cause of a $107,000 Fisker Karma shutting down in Consumer Reports tests is associated with A123’s defective batteries.
The $55 million battery replacement has had an effect on the A123 stock price, trading at $1.27 per share as of March 27, 2012, a new 52 week low. It was trading at over $25 per share as recently as 2009. A123 lost a net $172 million over the first three quarters of 2011 and has yet to see a profit. A Deutsche Bank analyst wrote: “We no longer have enough confidence that (A123) can raise sufficient capital (without massive equity dilution) and/or continue to augment their book to future business. Recent quality issues may lead to concerns over (A123’s) ability to manufacture with quality at high volumes, potentially leading to customer defections or at least difficulty in procuring new contracts.”
Former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm (D) once said A123 was a federal stimulus “success story.” Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) visited A123 headquarters and hailed it as a “great example of how Recovery Act funding is helping American companies.”
Meanwhile, A123’s Compensation Committee approved a $30,000 raise (from $350,000 to $380,000) for CFO David Prystash just days after Fisker Automotive announced that DOE cut off what was left of its $528.7 million loan it had previously received. Further, Jason Forcier, vice president of the automotive solutions group, was raised from $331,250 to $350,000.
BTW, A123 Systems President and CEO David Vieau has contributed at least $14,900 to Democrat candidates and groups since 2007. And it has spent at least $730,000 lobbying Congress on federal issues pertaining to the batteries they produce.
Again, I have to say: “Can DOE pick ’em, or what?”
But that’s just my opinion.
How come every company that Obama has okay’d grants to in the hundreds of millions of dollars and every single one goes bankrupt or has sever finacial problems and fails to come up to expectations, fails to produce anything that works? Why is that? Why are we wasting our tax money and just standing here with our thumbs up our butts wondering why things are so bad for us, at $4.00 a gallon?
I believe we the people should demand Obama resign or else we act on our Constitutional right and take him out of office and replace him with a Constitutional constructionist who knows what America needs in order to recover from all the Socialist and Communist damage that has been done.
Obama is an illegal alien anyway and should have his Presidency nullified and he should be deported. Everyone Obama put in his administration should also have their citizenship revoked and they should be deported to Russia so that they can finally live under the Communist form of government they’ve wished they could finish transforming America into.
It is against our Constitution to have Communists in our government doing anything that would transform this nation into anything other than what it was created to be and that is a Constitutional Representative Republic. Anything other than that is against the law, and anyone found to be doing otherwise is supposed to be arrested for treason. That is the law, it’s no one wants to act on it, they just ignore it and have for decades.
What is it going to take for men in our government to reach a point where they will gird themselves in order to do what is the right thing to do and that is to expose all the enemies of America in our government, and order their arrest. Where is there a man, well, I know where he is, he’s out here with us, not in the government, that can stand against Obama and tell him on TV that he is a liar and is a Marxist traitor with intentions to destroy our Constitution and destroy our way of life through force of his Communist cohorts in the government. We need a man who has the guts.
And here’s the most important thing and that is we all know that they are playing “professional courtesy” towards each other. No one wants to be guilty of destroying another man’s career, and hurt his family and take their future away from the man, and ruin the lives of his children. But in the case of Harry Reid, his son’s are lobbyists who lobby him for investment corporations they work for. Isn’t that against the law? Why won’t someone stand up and accuse him of breaking the law, and his son’s? It’s because no one wants to be guilty of wreaking another man’s life and ruin another man’s career, because he wouldn’t want that done to him. You know it’s like “do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” sort of thing.
No one wants to risk having their lives ruined if what they want to do back fires on them and the power they go up against is greater than that man expected. That is a very real possibility, that Reid and Pelosi and Obama can’t be exposed or brought down by telling the American people what Obama has done to them. There’s a risk the American people won’t respond to the truth, and that they have been fed lies for so long and desensitized for so long that they don’t know how to respond anymore. That is a very real possibility also. So what chance do a man take?
He needs a whole bunch of people to stand with him that the people know from TV and that they respect and would believe. See, that’s the trick, it’s what the people are willing to believe. Will they believe that truth when it’s given to them?
I don’t know how many of these companies that have gone bankrupt that the news has told the people of America were companies that Obama gave millions of dollars so they could do what they claimed they could do. Would it make a difference to them that their money was wasted on companies that couldn’t deliver on what they said they could do, and they stole the money after they went bankrupt? What would it mean to the American people in their minds? Would they be able to put two plus two together and understand that Obama was lying to them from the very start when he became a candidate which also was against the law, but would they know what was put before them.
I guess by now it’s pretty obvious that I don’t have much faith in the American people who’ve been watching CNN for the past twenty years and have become completely brain washed.
I want to know who has been assigned to indict George Kaiser for losing the $534 million dollars that Obama gave his company? Sen. Issa is looking into indicting Eric Holder for Fast and Furious, so who is it that is going to look into all the millions of dollars that Obama has given away to all his buddies in the environmental business of putting America in solar powered battery powered cars and trucks so we won’t be polluting the Earth with gasoline and oil use.
My question is, who is going to be the one to design the solar power for a 747-400 jumbo jet? China, Japan, who?
The stench of green energy scams through crony-capitalism and taxpayer abuse is overwhelming today. Let’s see here… so-called “private investors” (see Liberal supporters) put up half the money.. (think Solyndra) for green energy projects while the taxpayer puts up tghe other half. Then the company sucks down a few more years of green energy grants and “loans” which are in fact cash…after which the incompetents go bankrupt yet the “private investors” are allowed to break the law and get paid off while the taxpayers are left with huge losses.
How do we know they even put up any of their own money in the first place?
That’s a hell of a gig there. You bring the tar Warren, and I,ll bring the feathers. make an example of a few of these career criminals and the others may think twice about stealing us blind.