Tag: A123

The MEDC usually has simple results of failure, highlighted by jobs claims not materializing, eventual bankruptcies, and occasionally giving our money away to fraudsters.  Channeling the zen masters in Lansing's sacred halls of executive investing excellence, it provides a leg up to those who know how to play the system for their advantage over other businesses. Countless photo opportunities for politicians who 'bring home the bacon' can be counted on, as long as the MEDC efforts are funded with millions of our hard earned dollars.  Photo ops equal exposure, equals career doors opening for friends and family, and through the entire process equals some serious bling for those actively participating in its promotion.

Picking winners has never been so lucrative.

This time its potentially more dangerous. Last year, after my failed bid in the Republican primary, I produced a radio spot which predicted the A123 situation's end quite accurately.

In Mid-December, Senator Carl Levin posted a position piece supporting further battery technology spending by taxpayers in Michigan.  He states:

That's why an announcement in November by the Department of Energy was so important to Michigan. Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced the Joint Center for Energy Storage Research, a consortium of government, university and private-sector research labs aimed at revolutionizing battery technology.

Fittingly, Michigan is playing a key role in the effort. The consortium, headquartered at Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois, will include research hubs at Johnson Controls in Holland, and on the University of Michigan campus. Dow Chemical in Midland is also a key corporate partner.

The JCESR is nothing short of a Manhattan Project-styled effort to blow through the technical and economic limitations imposed by existing battery technology. Despite enormous progress that has allowed impressive accomplishments in hybrid vehicles and plug-in electric vehicles such as the Chevy Volt, today's batteries are still bigger, heavier, more expensive and lower capacity than we'd like. With technical improvements, we can bring down costs, reduce our dependence on imported oil and protect our environment.

The answer to this challenge is an effort that, as my colleague Sen. Richard Durbin of Illinois put it, "brings together, under a single organizational roof, the world's leading scientists, engineers and manufacturers in energy storage and provides them with the tools, resources and market reach necessary to produce major breakthroughs."

Between the sale of battery technology to China, and a dismal failure of LG Chem to realize the investment made:

"But now you're getting it. Reporters who visited the Michigan factory of the South Korean company LG Chem, which got $151 million in stimulus money to manufacture lithium-ion batteries, discovered workers sitting around playing Monopoly and poker. The employees said it wasn't their fault: "What do you do when there's no work?"  "

As far as going all-in with these schemes, one might better be served with the proverbial 'fool me once .." advice.  Frankly, Senator Levin should take the advice given to Harry Reid by the weeper last night.  

Yessirree.  Article V, Section 18 is merely PLPD coverage on the family car.  Out of pocket repair bills is exactly the exposure that every Michigan family faces with handing the keys to their little darlings behind the Lansing wheel.  What's that?  A smart family should know to also carry collision, or, Full Coverage if entrusting others with risks to the family vehicle?  Well, with just checking the old inbox, that is the message that the good folks over at the Michigan Capitol Confidential are driving home on Prop 5.

The idea behind a Tax Limitation Amendment is to make it more difficult for the political class to pilfer the pockets of taxpayers. Research -- most notably by scholar Mancur Olson -- has shown time and again that in democratic nations the wishes of an electorate are often ignored by narrow special interests that seek costly "favors" from the government. Politicians all too frequently accommodate those favors (be they subsidies or tariffs or spending hikes or other items) in part because their contributors and powerful constituents support them. Increasing taxes also is often a path of least resistance.

Constitutional restrictions are an effective way to handcuff politicians and stymie the special interests who lobby them for more money. Academic research on balance seems to show that such restrictions do check the growth of government and tax burdens, too.

Amen!  So, the natural question must be asked, why is it that the biggest opponent of Prop 5, Rick Snyder, a CEO, and CPA mind you, is behaving like a teenager who incessantly tells dumb 'ol mom and dad who are liable for his actions that he can text and drive?