I usually try to stay out of politics, simply because I have no interest in it. But there's something going here that I just can't let it slide, I have to say SOMETHING.
If you didn't already know, the US government has awarded funds to "green" companies by way of the Energy Department. Long story short, two auto companies together -- Fisker and Tesla -- received $1 billion dollars. Henrik Fisker's start-up walked away with a $529 million dollar loan for his project company.
There is one little problem though. There's no car...yet.
Technically two Fiskers have been delivered: one to Leonardo DiCaprio and an investor at Kleiner Perkins -- a fund who provided a second round of funds to the automaker. Not only will it cost upwards of six figures and be largely unattainable to the masses, but former Vice President Al Gore is connected to the venture firm.
Even better, here's the kicker:
According to the head honcho, Fisker himself, the car WON'T be built in the U-S-of-A because there isn't a contractor available to do the work. Citing making the "right decision" for the business, he went elsewhere.
Well, that's hockey...I guess.
With that said, I have to ask, WHO was doing the due diligence on this project before handing out a heaping pile of US taxpayer funds?
Do YOU see something wrong with this picture? How do YOU feel about this as an American taxpayer? Is 00R blowing this up for no real reason?
What say you?
...Vice President Joseph Biden heralded the Energy Department's $529 million loan to the start-up electric car company called Fisker as a bright new path to thousands of American manufacturing jobs. But two years after the loan was announced, the job of assembling the flashy electric Fisker Karma sports car has been outsourced to Finland...
...The loan to Fisker is part of a $1 billion bet the Energy Department has made in two politically connected California-based electric carmakers producing sporty -- and pricey -- cutting-edge autos. Fisker Automotive, backed by a powerhouse venture capital firm whose partners include former Vice President Al Gore, predicts it will eventually be churning out tens of thousands of electric sports sedans at the shuttered GM factory it bought in Delaware. And Tesla Motors, whose prime backers include PayPal mogul Elon Musk and Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, says it will do the same in a massive facility tooling up in Silicon Valley...
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