another obama failure
 

so what's the running tab for how much money obama has pissed away on this sort of thing?

Battery builder A123 Systems that won $249 million federal grant files for bankruptcy | Motoramic - Yahoo! Autos

Re: another obama failure
 

While I will agree with you that this seems to be a running joke of sorts, my questions or observations are this:

1. Who in the government is on the decision panel for granting these loans/grants? That person(s) seemingly is/are not very good at their job(s).

2. Do we, as a people truly think that electric cars are the future? I personally don't think they are, simply for the fact that in most cases, you still need a fossil fuel to produce the energy. While alternative energy is a plus, and something we should invest in, from a practical purpose, you are simply moving the reliance on fossil fuel upstream (from the substance the engine runs on, to the substance which is consumed to produce the energy for the engine). Fossil fuels, in most cases, are still an input in that process (electric cars)

My opinion is Hydrogen is the automobile fuel of the of the future (but who am I?).

3. I hate any level of government waste, and honestly is the reason I view so many programs with distrust, because waste is almost accepted and built into them. But all of these programs/loans/grants which have failed under Obama are a drop in the bucket $$ wise when compared to the costs of our boondoggles in Iraq/Afghanistan.

I'm not attempting to go OT with #3, just simply stating that whatever these electric car/solar panel etc loans have wasted taxpayer $$ wise ($1B?) wouldn't hurt so bad if we hadn't spent $1.3T(?) in our "Adventures in Nation Building".

Just my 3 cents.

Re: another obama failure
 

They didn't build that!

No they didn't. After 250 billion of wasted tax payer money down the rat hole, not one battery was made.

This from an administration that goes around demanding more tax money from people. Why? For what? To burn like paper that our currency already is?

Re: another obama failure
 

Business startups and financing is best handled by investors / Wall Street who are better equipped to study the business models and proceed accordingly after they access the risk involved. Government has no place in any of this outside of tax breaks and incentives which is money they would not have received anyways were the business not to exist.

Re: another obama failure
 

Political donors/bundlers get the $$$ for these boondoggles. If the company does work out, the investors get $$$$ and the taxpayer breaks even minus the interest we pay the Chicoms for the money we borrow to give to the donors, if the company fails, the taxpayer get to pay interest to the Chicoms, newer get anything back from the failed firm, the firm execs get golden parachutes and the pols get more donations.

Re: another obama failure
 

How many times does the military get startup money for a project, then has cost overruns, fraud and the like only to have the product not bought by the Government???..

Like it or not this is what the government does, it speculates on systems they think they need, then fund it and sometimes companies fail...

China is a leader in solar panels, and a leading factor in their success are government subsidies..

The US has subsidized R&D for Nuclear power, Nuclear Power Plan Development and fossil fuel power development.. it is what we do. For some reason the right does not like the idea of supporting alternative energy sources..

Re: another obama failure
 

I don't think that is a good comparison ... one is making goods for the public and one is making a product for one buyer - more if the state department allows it in the future. I don't think our government has any business seeding money for companies making public goods. That is not how our system was designed. If an idea is a good one ... the Wall Street people will be all over it. If the idea is risky - they won't be and Uncle Same should not be either.

Re: another obama failure
 

Is this better...

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/07/2...an-energy.html

Re: another obama failure
 

That is great ... but I still don't believe government should be involved in business ... helping some companies and not others ... politics getting involved on the financial end of business is not how our economy is designed. Perhaps Obama should help fund the NHL ... I miss my Bruins.

Re: another obama failure
 

I was curious to see what they had to say but the link is broke.