Just when you think you’ve seen all of the government subsidies for GM another one appears. But this one has three problems, not just one.
In 2010 Michigan manufacturer Compact Power received a $150 million government grant to produce batteries for electric vehicles, including the Chevy Volt. Given the weak consumer demand for the Volt, Compact Power has furloughed some of its workers before producing any batteries for the Volt. But this is more than just another green jobs debacle like Solyndra. Any batteries eventually produced and shipped to GM will be underwritten by the taxpayers, enabling GM to obtain them below actual production cost and ultimately understate its own production cost for the Volt. To make matters worse, Compact Power is a subsidiary of South Korean giant LG Chem, meaning that Washington is not only subsidizing GM, but its foreign suppliers as well.
So American taxpayers are (1) supporting a failed green jobs program for (2) a foreign-owned firm with the intent of (3) subsidizing production costs at GM. I guess the central planners are trying to kill 3 birds with one stone.
www.foxnews.com/us/2012/10/08/lg-plant-that-got-150m-to-make-volt-batteries-in-michigan-puts-workers-on/
More and more corruption. Sometimes I wish I didn’t know about all of this. Free enterprise is evaporating before my eyes.
I guess non of these birds is Big Bird.