A fly-by-night electric car company recently folded after getting nearly $200 million from the government yet the Obama administration plans to pour more money into the green auto loan program, according to a mainstream news report that acknowledges it’s “controversial.”
That’s quite an understatement considering the shady experiment’s history. It’s called Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing (ATVM) and it’s one of the president’s disastrous green-energy investments. The idea, according to the agency that runs it, the Department of Energy (DOE), is to support the development of advanced technology vehicles that meet higher efficiency standards. In all, the administration has set aside $25 billion for the cause.
So far it has proven to be a huge boondoggle that’s fleeced American taxpayers out of hundreds of millions of dollars. In fact, just a few months ago the initiative’s big hope, Fisker Automotive, shut down after receiving $193 million from Uncle Sam. The Obama DOE had pledged $529 million for the California startup but the cash finally stopped flowing when Fisker laid off three quarters of its employees and announced it was on the verge of bankruptcy.
Judicial Watch has an ongoing investigation into the Fisker scandal and in early 2012 sued the DOE for records detailing the government “loan” that will obviously never be repaid. The Obama administration touted it as a great investment in a company that would create thousands of jobs in a region hit hard by unemployment. The administration also promised Fisker would develop two lines of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles that could run up to 300 miles on a rechargeable Lithium-ion battery.
“Several problems,” including the multi-million-dollar Fisker fleecing, put the green car loan program on hold but it’s making a comeback, according to senior DOE officials cited in the news story. They have “signaled the Obama administration is ready to restart a controversial automotive loan program designed to kick-start the development of alternative vehicles,” according to the article which was published this week.
