DOE Loans $2.5B for Battery Manufacturing (Yet Another Progressive Policy Benefitting America Thread)

[Fenixgoon]

Conservatives love to talk about bringing manufacturing jobs back to America. Progressives actually do it.

GM and LG get $2.5 billion battery loan from the Department of Energy

11,000 new jobs will be created in Michigan, Ohio, and Tennessee.

arstechnica.com

Funny how government investments can radically spur economic growth and transition. It's like we're building some kind of system to support emerging technologies and capabilities that are becoming widespread and of domestic, national significance. Some kind of....infrastructure, if you will! Someone should spend money on that!

 

[BoomerD]

Is this going to be like the solar panel fiascos from the past few years?

U.S. solar power plant backed by over $700 million in government loans goes bust: filing

The owner of a big Nevada solar-thermal power plant that received $737 million in loans from the U.S. Department of Energy filed for bankruptcy on Thursday, according to a court filing, potentially leaving U.S. taxpayers with a whopping bill.

www.reuters.com

and

U.S. solar firm Solyndra files for bankruptcy

Solyndra LLC, a solar panel maker that received $535 million in federal loan guarantees, filed for bankruptcy, the third U.S. solar firm to succumb to pressure from Chinese rivals in recent weeks.

www.reuters.com

 

[woolfe9998]

Is this going to be like the solar panel fiascos from the past few years?

U.S. solar power plant backed by over $700 million in government loans goes bust: filing

The owner of a big Nevada solar-thermal power plant that received $737 million in loans from the U.S. Department of Energy filed for bankruptcy on Thursday, according to a court filing, potentially leaving U.S. taxpayers with a whopping bill.

www.reuters.com

and

U.S. solar firm Solyndra files for bankruptcy

Solyndra LLC, a solar panel maker that received $535 million in federal loan guarantees, filed for bankruptcy, the third U.S. solar firm to succumb to pressure from Chinese rivals in recent weeks.

www.reuters.com

Are you aware of how many solar startups received loans under that program? If memory serves, it was about 15. These were startups. It isn't a surprise that two companies went under. The program itself was well worth it. Solar in the US saw a 500% increase under the Obama years, and the money which flowed to solar under that stimulus bill was a large part of it.

The word "invesstment" always implies some risk. Pretending otherwise is just succumbing to right wing talking points.

 

[hal2kilo]

Are you aware of how many solar startups received loans under that program? If memory serves, it was about 15. These were startups. It isn't a surprise that two companies went under. The program itself was well worth it. Solar in the US saw a 500% increase under the Obama years, and the money which flowed to solar under that stimulus bill was a large part of it.

The word "invesstment" always implies some risk. Pretending otherwise is just succumbing to right wing talking points.

Yea, but we're picking winners and losers. Standard conservative talking point.

 

[woolfe9998]

Yea, but we're picking winners and losers. Standard conservative talking point.

Of course we're picking "winners and losers." That isn't wrong unless proven otherwise. I guess it just sounds bad that we are "picking winners and losers" so that's enough. It's pure sophistry.

 

[dullard]

Is this going to be like the solar panel fiascos from the past few years?

U.S. solar power plant backed by over $700 million in government loans goes bust: filing

The owner of a big Nevada solar-thermal power plant that received $737 million in loans from the U.S. Department of Energy filed for bankruptcy on Thursday, according to a court filing, potentially leaving U.S. taxpayers with a whopping bill.

www.reuters.com

That plant is back up and running during the hotter months when Nevada needs the extra power:

Solar plant near Tonopah producing power for NV Energy after stop during bankruptcy

A $1 billion solar power plant is operating again in the Nevada desert after it went into bankruptcy and shut down in April 2019.

www.8newsnow.com

The whole loan program is here:

PORTFOLIO PROJECTS

LPO manages a portfolio comprising more than $30 billion of loans, loan guarantees, and conditional commitments covering more than 30 projects.

www.energy.gov

Projections are for an $5 billion taxpayer PROFIT when you include all companies and not just the failed companies. But if you want to only look at failed companies, there are more on that website than just the two you linked.

 

[trenchfoot]

I like it that those states controlled by the Repubs are benefitting from this yet we all know that anything the Democrats come up with that benefits the nation as a whole is either completely ignored by them or credit is claimed by their Repub legislators.

If only the working class Repubs of the nation would look at and compare the legislative record both parties have accumulated over the years following the second world war, it would be perfectly clear that it's the Democrat party that's been their champion while their own party leadership has been solely focused on making life easy and comfortable for the wealthier aristocrat class of the nation while flooding the conservative media with rants and diatribe after diatribe against the Democrats to hide the ugly fact that they've done nothing much of nothing in the way of prioritizing the economic and health benefits their party actually could give them but won't because their leadership does not actually represent their interests. Well, apart from those single hyped up issues that have absolutely nothing to do with giving their working class voters a leg up on the quality of their lives (which cost tax revenues that should go to the wealthiest robber barons of the nation).

Well I guess being paranoid about keeping their guns and hyping religious fervor is much better than getting a bigger piece of the economic pie that our nation is blessed with generating. Still can't believe how the working class stiffs of the Repub party can't see how they're being exploited so badly by their corporate owned political cadre and do something about that.