The Daily Caller has the story
GOP leaders are investigating Ecotality Inc., yet another troubled green-tech company that has received taxpayer funds and public support from the White House.
The firm has received roughly $126 million from the the Department of Energy to install roughly 14,000 electric car chargers, has donated thousands of dollars to Democratic politicians, and was showcased by President Barack Obama in his 2010 State of the Union speech.
But the company has installed less than 7,000 of the chargers, its subsidiary is being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission for insider trading, and it has only created 144 jobs, according to the federal Recovery.gov website.
The reason behind looking at Ecotality is
The information is needed to weigh the merits of Obama’s 2013 budget-request for $1 billion “National Community Deployment Challenge†program that would subsidize local governments’ support for green-tech vehicles.
The purpose behind the loans was to install home charging stations, free ones. Oh, and public charging stations. My bet is on the majority being “public”, rather than at people’s homes. Few people are buying the Volt or the Nissan Leaf, and really, since the people who do buy them tend to have incomes approaching $200k a year, perhaps they should pay for the stations themselves.
And, at that same “purpose” link, we learn
Ecotality officials hope the research project not only creates jobs – 5,500 by 2017 – but that it puts the publicly traded company in a strong position to serve the U.S. market for electric vehicles.
So far, 144 jobs. Which is typical with the Stimulus. The jobs just do not appear. But, Democrat donors do get payback in attempting to create a company which demand wouldn’t have.
More at Say Anything.
Why are the biggest FAILS associated with Obama and “green” (sickly-green?) technology?!?!?
lol.. irony.
If the man had any slight clue into economics, he could have made it work. Of course, that was never the idea behind the loans.