That would be Elon Musk.
Warren Buffet must be “green” with envy.
Tag: eco-corporatism
Fueling fascism
Why would any organization continue to pursue practices and policies which have exactly the opposite effects of their stated goals? Why would they double down on an obvious failure??
Ethanol as fuel provides a case study:
Ethanol Fraud and Why You Pay More at the Pump
It starts as mere cronyism, and ends up as Fascism – the ultimate public-private partnership. The partners will beggar consumers (and tax them for the privilege), pollute the air and water, install protectionist tariffs and stifle innovation and competition with arcane and draconian regulation.
When this is rolling along nicely, they create an unnecessary and inefficient market to place rigged bets on trade in the ruination. All the while they whine about the evils of free markets, castigating “greedy people” who are too venal and stupid to behave according to the central plan. The solutions always require more money and more regulation.
Conservatives (who used to be called liberals) believe all people are imperfect and subject to the temptations of power. Therefore, they seek to limit the application of power.
Progressives (who are now called liberals) believe all people, except those in power, are imperfect, and that the temptations of power are trumped by good intentions. They seek to maximize the application of their intentions – no matter the results.
Note: The article linked above repeats itself, so when you reach the part you’ve already read, you can stop.
And the winner the statists picked is… China
China just bought the battery manufacturing darling of the US DoE and the Granholm adminstration.
A company that two years ago was one of the most promising U.S. innovators in the clean-fuel auto industry was rescued from collapse Wednesday. Its buyer: A Chinese auto-parts company.
Wanxiang Group Corp., one of China’s biggest parts makers, offered a $450 million lifeline to A123 Systems Inc., a maker of advanced batteries for electric vehicles that received U.S.-government backing. The deal would put the firm’s lithium-ion technology and its U.S.-funded manufacturing plant into the hands of a company that has slowly acquired a passel of auto assets across the Midwest.
A123 has ripped off the American taxpayer for $249 million in grants from the U.S. Department of Energy. It was one of former governor Granholm’s favorite picks, to the tune of $100 million. The Chinese are grateful, I suppose, for taxpayer assistance while A123’s stock dropped from $26.00 to $0.82. Without said assistance, A123 might have been gone before they could buy it. Worse yet, from Obama’s point of view, Bain Capital might have turned it around.
TOC has mentioned A123 as an excellent example of government “investment” failure.
So. Is anyone wondering why the Chinese didn’t buy Solyndra? My guess is that they, unlike the Obama administration, sometimes know a hopeless investment when they see one. And the fact that Obama himself deigned to appear at, and specifically cite Solyndra, while leaving A123 to the likes of Debbie Stabenow, does tell you that the more money government uses to tilt the market the higher the political profile, and the worse the results. A123’s jobs may be going to China now, but at least there are still jobs.
Close the tax loopholes!
Those tall bars don’t represent job destroying tax loopholes. In Ecotropia, they’re your fair share of saving the planet: One political donor at a time.
Source: Committee on the Budget: U.S. House of Representatives
The Empty Promise of Green Jobs
The Empty Promise of Green Jobs
Of course, the half-billion dollars Solyndra destroyed, or the money Jennifer Granholm, et. al. wasted on ethanol and batteries isn’t even counted in this graph.