Seems the more you look, the more “good news” you find regarding our current Administration’s picking of “green energy” winners and losers.<\/p>\n
Like folks playing cards, board games, and helping out at local charities on the company dime.<\/p>\n
Well, sorta on the company dime.\u00a0 Seems many of those dimes were actually provided by Uncle Sam.<\/p>\n
LG Chem, a South Korean company, decided to build a battery factory in Holland, Michigan.\u00a0 They got a $151 million grant from the DoE under the Recovery Act<\/a>.<\/p>\n The plant cost around $300 million.\u00a0 And about $133 million of the grant money has been spent \u2013 much, rather understandably, going to other South Korean businesses.\u00a0 Hey, LG Chem is a Korean company; who would you expect them to buy some of their equipment from?<\/p>\n Still, that\u2019s just normal business.\u00a0 And I guess I could live with that \u2013 if the factory was actually producing anything.<\/p>\n Unlike some “green” firms<\/a>, this factory actually could<\/em> produce a useable product.\u00a0 The pilot run for the plant produced battery cells that performed quite well.\u00a0 The production process was sound, and the resulting battery cells would have been useful and salable.\u00a0 Everything was “good to go” for start-up.<\/p>\n But the factory has yet to ship a single battery to a customer.\u00a0 Seems it was built to produce battery cells for use in the Chevy Volt.<\/p>\n Oops.<\/p>\n Approximately 100 of the factory\u2019s employees are assessed to be funded by Federal grant money.\u00a0 Today they – and their colleagues – are doing nothing useful.<\/p>\n Management had (and has) them doing “make work” jobs – cleaning inside and outside, studying, etc. . . . When there’s no work for them to be assigned, they do nothing – or play cards and board games.\u00a0 In fact, it got so boring many asked for permission to help out at local charities like Habitat for Humanity on company time.<\/p>\n In September, they started 1 week in 4 furloughs \u2013 though they\u2019ll apparently be eligible to receive Michigan Unemployment Compensation (UC) while on unpaid furlough.\u00a0 And since Michigan is one of those states that has already exhausted it\u2019s UC fund balance<\/a>, that means the Federal government will also be paying for those UC benefits, too \u2013 at least in the short run.<\/p>\n None of this is the employees\u2019 fault.\u00a0 And I can\u2019t really fault LG Chem, either.\u00a0 They thought they could produce a good product, would get a good economic deal to do so, get a good return on investment, and could also help the local economy.\u00a0 It just didn\u2019t work out.<\/p>\n But I do wonder whether they\u2019d have done this without that $151 million \u201csweetener\u201d that Uncle Sam gave them.\u00a0 Or without the foolish assurances they doubtless got that the Chevy Volt would be the US auto industry’s “next big thing”.<\/p>\n Something tells me the answer in both cases is “No”.\u00a0 And something also tells me that the US taxpayer is out at least $133 million here – and probably more – that they\u2019ll never get back.<\/p>\n Hat tip to UpNorth for the first link above.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"