A Conservative View

OBAMAFRAUD – A NEW DEMOCRATIC WAY TO REWARD THE GREEN WITH MY GREEN!

 Author: David Sims

Let’s be clear: We’re all for green manufacturing. All for it. But consider the sordid tale of Fisker Automotive, which has been demonstrating the wrong way to build a green product but the right way to generate a lot of bad publicity.

As part of a ballyhooed initiative of the Obama administration to promote green manufacturing, assist development of electric cars and to “put Americans back to work,” Fisker Automotive got a $529 million “loan” guarantee from the U.S. Department of Energy to build a car that would sell for about $90,000.

At the time, as reported by the Wall Street Journal, the car was said to be powered by a lithium-ion battery, be able to run solely on electric power for 50 miles and achieve an average fuel economy of 100 miles per gallon over the span of a year.

WSJ fired the opening salvo, reporting, rather dryly, in September 2009 that a “tiny” car company backed by prominent Democrat Al Gore and other Obama donors was given a huge $529 million windfall “loan” from American taxpayers, courtesy of the Obama administration, to produce a car named Karma.

The California company put on a nice show for administration officials, displaying manufacturing facilities in Irvine, Calif., and Pontiac, Mich., before securing the public funding, ostensibly on the grounds that the Karma would be produced using American labor. After the funds were awarded, the company quietly revealed that the luxury car would actually be produced in Finland.

“Has the Fisker driven past yet, Andrei? I hear it looks real nice.”

So much for putting Americans back to work. The Finns should thank us. Now if we could just do something for Nokia.

The 2009 WSJ article quoted Matt Rogers, in charge of the DOE’s loan programs for Energy Secretary Steven Chu, as saying that Fisker was awarded the loan after a detailed technical review that concluded the company could eventually deliver a highly fuel-efficient hybrid car to a mass audience. Fisker said most of its DOE loan would be used to finance U.S. production of a $40,000 family sedan “that has yet to be designed.”

We’re all still waiting on that sedan.

Fisker Automotive was a rather curious project for a government ostensibly interested in helping Americans get back to work. As it turned out, according to investigative reporter Mark Silva:

Fisker’s top investors include Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, a veteran Silicon Valley venture capital firm of which Gore is a partner… Employees of KPCB have donated more than $2.2 million to political campaigns, mostly for Democrats, including President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan group that tracks campaign contributions.

So put together some rich investors with connections to Democrats and a green-sounding idea of producing electric cars and you get a $500 million loan backed by the American public. One could ask why Fisker Automotive didn’t start with the $40,000-family-sedan project instead of a $90,000 luxury toy, but that would probably be ungentlemanly.

But the Karma Is At Least Green, Right?

That was the question taken up by the popular blog Driver’s Seat last November.

The California Air Resources Board considers the Karma a “fairly standard smog-creator,” denting its green cachet a bit. Nevertheless, the car did receive certification from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the California state regulator, which branded it as a low-emissions vehicle (LEV II), even though, according to John Swanton, air pollutions specialist at the California agency, the Dodge Avenger, Chrysler 200 and BMW 528i, among others, qualified for a lower emissions standard, called ultra-low emissions vehicle.

End of article

Is this the way you want your green tax money wasted to fill the pockets of folks like Al Gore? If we had the same news media that existed when honesty and ethics were required, Gore would be in prison. Is there anyone besides me that cares?

The real sad part is the thousands if other Obamafraud’s that we never hear about.   

C Brewer

Thanks Chris