Electric Cars On The Road: Another Delusional Goal From Obama.

Back in 2010, another election year, Obama set a goal of one million electric cars on the road by 2015.  Certainly, this was an attempt to energize and garner votes from his "green" base of voters. Now, with only 11 months to go on that "by" 2015 goal, one might ask how things are going with the President's target.

Well, according to the facts collected by Wikipedia, there are only 380,000 electric cars operating in the whole world.  Only 170,000 in the U.S.  That's an average of 42,500 cars sold per year in this country.  At this rate, we won't exactly  have a million electric cars on U.S. highways by 2015.  In fact, it will take another 17+ years to meet this ridiculous goal.  Back in 2011, Obama's Department of Energy knew that there was no way the goal would be met.  Yet, they still reported this:

"Although the goal is ambitious, key steps already taken and further steps proposed indicate the goal is achievable. Indeed, leading vehicle manufacturers already have plans for cumulative U.S. production capacity of more than 1.2 million electric vehicles by 2015, according to public announcements and news reports."

This is the same Department that dumped billions into start up green energy companies that would ultimately fail.

The fact is that there just aren't enough wealthy, planet-green-hatted-people in the U.S. who are stupid enough to buy these expensive and range-limited vehicles.  Once again, we have another false and purely politically-motivated goal coming from this President; and, a lying government agency that attempts to support it.

References:

U.S. Department of Energy: One Million Electric Vehicles By 2015: Status Report: http://www1.eere.energy.gov/vehiclesandfuels/pdfs/1_million_electric_vehicles_rpt.pdf

Wikipedia: Electric Car Use By Country: http://www1.eere.energy.gov/vehiclesandfuels/pdfs/1_million_electric_vehicles_rpt.pdf

Another Obama-funded Green Tech Company Bites The Dust

Yesterday, another Obama-funded solar company went bankrupt. This time it was Solar Trust and they managed to get a $2.1 billion loan guarantee from Obama's Department of Energy. Out of the eight that since failed in the last year after having been funded by taxpayer money, this one is even more laughable than the rest.

The first joke is its name: Solar Trust. Trust what? Trust that they stay in business. Trust that they won't waste taxpayer money. Trust that their technology is sound.

Then, the other joke is Solar Trust's original parent company, was a German company with the name of Solar Millennium. They went bankrupt last December. Wow! Millennium! They could barely stay in business for 13 years; much less a millennium.

Finally, there's the second parent company who took over "Trust" after "Millennium" died. They were another German company named: Solarhybrid. They too went bankrupt just last month; leaving Solar Trust to fend for itself. Of course, we now know that Solar Trust couldn't even survive a month on its own.

Obviously, there's a pattern here that is no joking matter. More than $3.5 billion dollars of taxpayer money has been thrown away on unsound green companies. Yet, neither Obama nor Energy Secretary Chu are being held responsible for this Madoff-equivalent irresponsibility.

Obama Spent A $Billion To Lose -- Not Gain -- 1100 Jobs

This week's "green jobs" scandal for the Obama Administration is all about a $529 million loan to a start-up electric car company, Fisker, who took that money and then decided to build their new Karma automobile in Finland. Prior to this, there was the Solyndra scandal who, when given a similar amount of money, spent like there was no tomorrow; first class on everything. Ultimately, they closed their doors and 1100 people lost their jobs. So, our "net" in an investment of over a billion dollars: A loss of 1100 jobs in America and a gain of 500 manufacturing jobs in Finland.

Both these debacles fall under the purview of Obama's Energy Secretary Steven Chu. And, my guess is that this won't be the end of these kinds of screw ups. That's because you can see a trend in Chu's inability to understand the business plans and potential marketplace of the products of these two companies.

Take for example, the lack of thought that went into the Fisker loan. First, its a $90,000 automobile that only has an expected annual sales goal of 15,000 units worldwide. Its target is the super rich. Is that the best use of a half-billion dollars in taxpayer money? Worse yet, it is an automotive styling showpiece (And that's all it is!) which is no engineering marvel. It only has an all-electric range of 35 miles; after which, it runs on gasoline and only gets around 20 miles to the gallon. The Fisker website states that the Karma is "Pure Driving Passion" and goes on to say that it will be distributed by a "network of retailers...handpicked to give owners unparalleled service while making them part of an exclusive club". Not hardly a "people's car" that is designed to save the planet. For that reason, alone, the government should never have funded this company. But, it did anyway; leaving the only reason for the loan: Crony Capitalism due to pressure from political donors.

The bottom line is that the Obama Administration, through its ineptness, has thrown away more than $1 billion in taxpayer money. If either of these companies were proven to be good investments, the corporate community, now sitting on nearly $2 trillion, or some venture capitalist would have been more than happy to give them the needed seed money. Instead, both companies failed to find adequate private sector funding and wound up suckering the Obama Administration for the cash. Believe me, if this had been anything other than a Democrat Administration, the media would be calling for heads to roll.