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View Full Version : Ener1: Another Green Company Goes Bankrupt After 118 Million Dollar Grant From Obama



Conley
01-27-2012, 09:46 AM
WASHINGTON — The parent company of an electric car battery maker that received a $118 million grant from the Obama administration filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Thursday.

New York-based Ener1 said it has been affected by competition from China and other countries.

Ener1 subsidiary EnerDel received a $118 million stimulus grant from the Energy Department in 2009, and Vice President Joe Biden visited the company’s new battery plant in Indiana last year.

Ener1 is the third company to seek bankruptcy protection after receiving assistance from the Energy Department under the economic stimulus law. California solar panel maker Solyndra Inc. and Beacon Power, a Massachusetts energy-storage firm, declared bankruptcy last year. Solyndra received a $528 million federal loan, while Beacon Power got a $43 million loan guarantee.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/industries/parent-company-of-car-battery-maker-that-received-energy-dept-grant-files-for-bankruptcy/2012/01/26/gIQA78QKUQ_story.html

What is going on? These are massive sums of money and these companies are cratering a couple of years after getting infusions like this. We need outside investigators ASAP to get to the bottom of this.

MMC
01-27-2012, 01:26 PM
Were those the guys that came up with the battery for the Volt? Yeah, I remember the big deal about it and Biden talking about how it created jobs and saved some little town too. I think I saw their company driving down 65 on the way to Kentucky.

Something definately is not right and how does the Energy Dept get to keep throwing money out there. Keep getting grants.

Another question is why are we not creating damns and more. Especially when we see all this flooding from the Mississippi and the constant building and re-building of levies. Won't Dams help to create electrical power?

Conley
01-27-2012, 01:36 PM
Were those the guys that came up with the battery for the Volt? Yeah, I remember the big deal about it and Biden talking about how it created jobs and saved some little town too. I think I saw their company driving down 65 on the way to Kentucky.

Something definately is not right and how does the Energy Dept get to keep throwing money out there. Keep getting grants.

Another question is why are we not creating damns and more. Especially when we see all this flooding from the Mississippi and the constant building and re-building of levies. Won't Dams help to create electrical power?

Exactly, they made the batteries for the Volt. I guess a few of them caught on fire and they were trying to keep that out of the news. You're also right that there were connections to Biden.

Dams are a possibility but they also mess with the land a lot, you'd need a big area to flood and it will change the lives of all downstream.

MMC
01-27-2012, 01:42 PM
Exactly, they made the batteries for the Volt. I guess a few of them caught on fire and they were trying to keep that out of the news. You're also right that there were connections to Biden.

Dams are a possibility but they also mess with the land a lot, you'd need a big area to flood and it will change the lives of all downstream.

Beats paying out millions every year and having people displaced.....I would think. Every year it is the same way for the Upper Mississippi and it floods all the way down to the gulf. Topping over levies and breaking thru the rebuilt ones. Plus one would think with new tech there would be a way where they do not have to have huge dams.

Conley
01-27-2012, 03:09 PM
Not a bad idea, but you know the politicians in those areas would do everything they could to keep it from happening.

MMC
01-27-2012, 03:39 PM
Yeah I don't get that.....especially with water becoming an issue. People should be informed and see what they come up with and not rely on politicans to be the only ones making such a decision.

I was watching something on the history Channel about Hoover Dam. That if something was to take out the electrical power. That the Hoover Dam would be one of the last places in the country that would still have power, and be up and running. I think it was like with one of those shows of what would happen with some sort of Apocalypse here. Guy said something about all they need is someone to open the oil or grease for the bearings and pistons or something like that.

Course if that was the case then you know where Homeland Security is headed and those that will keep the Government up and running if that was to happen. You would be closer brutha! :wink:

jgreer
01-27-2012, 03:42 PM
People don't want to have their hometowns destroyed and flooded. Would you?

MMC
01-27-2012, 03:57 PM
People don't want to have their hometowns destroyed and flooded. Would you?


What do you mean JG? They don't have dams now and every year the Mississippi floods from the top of the country and down to the Gulf coast. Costing milions of dollars and still displacing people. In several different states. Look at this last year they even broke open levies and let it run over into Missouri flooding and destroying hundreds of acres of farmlands. All to lessen note thats lessen the flooding that was headed to Louisana and N. Orleans again. Still did not stop the flooding. Dams would IMO!

jgreer
01-27-2012, 04:21 PM
But that would only provide electric for the deep south and they don't want power that way away

MMC
01-27-2012, 04:40 PM
Not if they did it for every state. Moreover it would provide power to the upper states to. They already build levies and every year rebuild them. Due to the infrastructure as is in the country all the experts state these levies will all fail anyways. It is a waste of money. Quick fixes and then the usual. Evacuation of the area or region and all the damage and loss. Then the Fed declaring areas a national emergency and throwing open funding and the beaurucratic process into the mix. Fema and then Fed Regulations. Over what states could do themselves and together jointly.

Once again it takes a leader with vision. Dams can be built, rivers can be diverted for overflow, levies built where they should only be built in the first place. Not some system that fails every year. Resovoirs and Oasis' built to retain fresh water. Projects that states themselves can work together with as they are all involved and it affects them. Which means pulling Big buisness, little buisness, state, local govs all together.
Changing the way we build including residential and business structures. Minimizing the damage as much as we can.

How many hundreds of millions of dollars could be saved and used elsewhere or even back into the infrastructure, if things are done properly. Fresh water being accumlated rather than lost is another area we would gain in and would also be preparing for the future with any sort of disasters.

Mr. Burns
01-28-2012, 12:07 AM
People don't want to buy shitty hybrid or electric cars for more money. It's the great hurdle of the green movement. Pomposity only gets you so far; eventually people are alienated by it.