An electric vehicle company, once touted by Joe Biden, embraced by the Democratic Party, and celebrated by the media, filed for bankruptcy. Once heralded as a leader in the “green” transportation revolution, the company attracted interest and backing from the U.S. Department of Energy and high-profile investors. A short time later, however, the company failed, causing losses for the taxpayers and private investors alike. And Joe Biden, so prominent at the company’s launch, was miles away, with nothing to say.
That paragraph describes the failure this week of Proterra, an electric bus company. But it also describes the failure, ten years ago, of the Fisker Automotive.
In 2009, then-Vice President Joe Biden announced $529 billion for Fisker in Department of Energy loan guarantees — “billions of dollars in good, new jobs” — to build EVs in his home state of Delaware. Fisker folded in 2013, without ever making a car in the U.S., and taxpayers lost $139 million. (Fisker Inc., a separate company, was launched in 2016.)
Other observers noted the similarities to Solyndra, the failed solar panel maker that was once highlighted as part of President Barack Obama’s stimulus package, which Biden oversaw (as he boasted on the campaign trail in 2020). Biden proudly announced in 2009 that Solyndra was being given $535 million in Department of Energy loan guarantees. He talked about the “infrastructure and technology of the future,” and the thousands of jobs that would be created. By 2011, Solyndra had filed for bankruptcy.
There are three reasons that Biden’s green energy projects keep failing.
One is Biden’s idea that government spending should lead the way, investing in business ventures that might otherwise struggle to attract capital from the markets. This is the heart of what the White House calls “Bidenomics.” It relies on massive public spending, to be paid for somehow by tax hikes. It does create jobs — but at the cost of inflation and high interest rates. These make products like electric vehicles harder for consumers to afford.
The second reason for Biden’s green energy failures is that they are accompanied by an alarmist philosophy about climate change that serves as an excuse for investing in unproven technologies and businesses that might otherwise not pass muster. The idea of a climate “emergency” also means there is less vigilance when unscrupulous lobbyists and special interest groups try to claim a share of the green spending bonanza. (Was there really any compelling reason for Fisker to be located in Delaware, for example?)
But the third and most important reason for Biden’s repeated green failures is simply that the media never hold him accountable.
On Wednesday, a day after the failure of Proterra, President Biden headed to New Mexico to celebrate yet another “green” effort — this time, a company that makes wind towers. The company could be fine; some “green” ventures are. But the sheer chutzpah of boosting one green company a day after the failure of another could only happen because the media tolerate Biden’s failures.
Likewise with Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm, whose role in Proterra, “hyped the company in her official capacity despite the fact that she previously served on Proterra’s board and held over a million dollars worth of stock in the company even after she was confirmed as the head of Biden’s Energy Department.” As Michigan’s governor, she also sank millions into A123 Systems, an electric vehicle battery maker that failed.
The media allow Democrats to get away with it, which is why it keeps happening.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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