After The State of the Union: One Look at Energy and Jobs

“If we want to make the best products, we also have to invest in the best ideas.” This language along with “energy independence” and “clean energy “are a reoccurring themes with the Obama Administration, but are actions by the Department of Energy backing up the rhetoric?

Let’s circle back to the President’s 2011 State of the Union Address, in which he promised that the United States would become “the first country to have a million electric vehicles on the road by 2015.”

Recently, the Department of Energy has backed away from this target. Shocking, right?  Well, with only 71,000 electric vehicles currently on the road, the Administration has a long way to go in order to fulfill its promise to the American taxpayers.

The Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program (ATVM), a program designated to achieve better technology, innovation, and jobs, has since come under scrutiny. In a recent Washington Post article, Carol D. Leonning notes:

The program, “which is run by the Energy Department, invited ‘green’ carmakers to compete for huge, low-interest government loans that they could use to ramp up production, inside the United States, of electric and alternative vehicles that would reduce fuel emissions…So far, the program has only loaned $8.5 billion of its authorized funds.”

Headlining the New York Times earlier this week, John M. Broder’s less-than laudatory review of the Tesla Model S Sedan illustrates the failure of the electric vehicle to retain a battery charge and maintain operation within the allotted mile range between charges.   Tesla is just one of the five recipients of the Department’s ATVM Program, and part of the “solution” which the Administration boasted about, according to the Broder’s review:

“The federal government has invested in the effort to find a solution. Three years ago, Steven Chu, the Nobel Prize-winning physicist and secretary of energy, proudly announced a $465 million loan to Tesla as part of an advanced vehicles program intended to cut fossil fuel use and address global warming.”

One critic, Charles Lane of the Washington Post, went so far as to declare the ATVM loan program a “case study in unchecked righteousness.” We agree.  Who is holding the DOE accountable for their poor selections in loan recipients? Why did the DOE reject other, well-qualified candidates? And on what basis were these loans awarded?

Take XP Vehicles, for example.  They’re a green-energy startup based out of San Francisco, California who applied for the ATVM loan program in November 2008.  Their design cost less than $20,000, required no gasoline or extension cords to charge, was easy to repair and build, and used crash effect reduction materials.  So why aren’t their affordable and reliable cars out on the road?  DOE denied their loan.

Cause of Action has since stepped in, and is challenging the DOE’s process through which they granted these loans. We’re concerned the DOE has acted in an arbitrary and capricious manner, inconsistently favoring some, while disadvantaging other applicants. These loan programs were intended to promote U.S. advanced technology companies and to reduce U.S. dependency on foreign oil. Instead, we’ve only found ourselves with thousands of unsold cars, unfulfilled promises, and a growing distrust in the government.

There are other more deserving applicants of the ATVM loan program. We’re certain of it.

XP Vehicles may be just one of many applicants worthy of reconsideration, but they’re certainly a good place to start.

 

Join us for live commentary of the State of the Union

 

Follow us on twitter: @causeofactionDC

Morning News for Tuesday, February 12, 2013

The latest update in the Drakes Bay Oyster case covered today by The Press Democrat:

A federal judge on Monday denied Drakes Bay Oyster Company’s second legal bid to remain in business beyond a Feb. 28 deadline to quit harvesting oysters from Drakes Estero in the Point Reyes National Seashore. U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers issued a 70-word order rejecting oyster farm operator Kevin Lunny’s appeal of her previous ruling on Feb. 4.

DNC chairwoman tries to deceive the press in an effort to criticize Marco Rubio. The Washington Examiner has this story:

Democratic National Committee chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz attempted a bit of deception Monday in an effort to criticize GOP rising star Marco Rubio ahead of his State of the Union rebuttal Tuesday night. But on this occasion, the press wasn’t falling for it. In a conference call Monday, Wasserman Schultz enlisted the help of Annette Capella, described by party officials as a “Medicare recipient from Florida,” to warn of the “extreme budget priorities,” they believe Rubio is likely to outline in his televised response to President Obama’s address.

A senator sharply criticizes overspending and program duplication by the Justice Department. The Daily Caller reports:

Pointing to charts showing the web of redundant and expensive Justice Department grants, Coburn argued that the last thing the Senate should do is add to the mess. “Department of Justice grants — 253 different programs, not just run by the Department of Justice, but nine other agencies besides them — [are] spending $3.9 billion a year,” he said, while displaying a cost chart. “And we might say that’s okay. Now let’s look at the organization.”

 

Morning News for Monday, February 11, 2013

There is more coverage of the Drakes Bay Oyster Conflict today. The Press Democrat has the latest:

Attorneys for Drakes Bay Oyster Company have asked a federal judge to rule Monday on their request to postpone a Feb. 28 deadline for shutting down the business in Marin County’s Point Reyes National Seashore. The request for an expedited ruling is necessary to “avoid the total destruction” of oyster farm owner Kevin Lunny’s livelihood, the loss of more than 30 jobs and “a crop of 19 million shellfish in the waters of Drakes Estero,” the court filing said.

The Daily Caller News Foundation covers the multiple hatch act violations in the Obama administration:

A troubling pattern of illegal campaigning by government officials, including two members of President Obama’s cabinet, is raising questions about the federal oversight agency that monitors such infractions.

There is continued uncertainty surrounding the now illegal NLRB appointments. Legal Times has this story:

More than 30 workplace disputes, including one involving a national wholesale company, are now on hold in a federal appeals court in Washington as the U.S. Justice Department mulls whether to challenge a ruling that voided President Barack Obama’s recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board.

Wall Street Journal: A Jewell Who’s Rough on Jobs

A Jewell Who’s Rough on Jobs

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Friday February 8, 2013 Morning News

There is more coverage of the Drakes Bay Oyster Conflict today. The Washington Free Beacon has the latest:

The Drakes Bay Oyster Company is appealing a judge’s decision to deny injunctive relief against the secretary of the interior’s decision not to renew the business’ permit to use federal land, Cause of Action announced Wednesday. “We are committed to fighting against government abuse and overreach to keep the Lunny family in business … and are taking all the necessary legal steps to appeal this ruling,” said Amber Abbasi, Cause of Action’s chief counsel for regulatory affairs, in a statement. Cause of Action is representing the company and its owner in this case along with Briscoe Ivester & Bazel, LLP, and SSL Law.

Retiring DOT Secretary, Ray LaHood says, “America is one big pothole.”  More from The Hill:

Critics of President Barack Obama’s recess appointments are calling on Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan to recuse herself from a potential Supreme Court hearing on the matter. The Chamber of Commerce raised the prospect of recusal, citing then-solicitor general Kagan’s defense of President Obama’s recess appointments in a previous case regarding the composition of the National Labor Relations Board.

Senators are blaming congress for agency waste and duplication. Government Executive has this story:

Key reasons for wasteful duplication of federal programs include a lack of knowledge among lawmakers and their tendency to think parochially and short-term, Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., said Wednesday. “We have a great federal workforce, but the problem is that members of Congress, while well intentioned, lack oversight and knowledge of what programs are out there,” Coburn told business executives at a forum on transforming government for the 21st century sponsored by the Business Roundtable and Governing magazine.

The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is concerned about how the DOJ is enforcing adherence to FOIA laws. 

Thursday, February 7, 2013 Morning News

The Drakes Bay Oyster Company has decided to appeal the judge’s decision to deny the motion for preliminary injunction. More from the Associated Press

The owners of a Northern California oyster farm that is scheduled to be removed from Point Reyes National Seashore are appealing a judge’s refusal to allow it to stay open while its lawsuit against the government proceeds. Drakes Bay Oyster Co. on Wednesday filed an appeal with the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Bloom Energy whistleblower speaks about the crony company’s mistreatment of workers. Read the account on Mercury News:

They traveled 1,300 miles and toiled long hours, earning the equivalent of $2.66 an hour in Mexican pesos while working in the Bay Area for acclaimed Silicon Valley tech startup Bloom Energy. “It wasn’t right what they were doing. It’s not the way to treat people,” said a former Bloom Energy contractor who claims he blew the whistle to authorities about the company’s mistreatment of the workers, who were brought to this country on visitor visas from the Bloom Energy plant in Chihuahua.

The Oversight Committee is demanding information from agencies who have failed to be transparent, delay FOIA requests. The Hill reports:

Scores of agencies across the federal government have failed to update their regulations involving the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), despite a 2009 directive from Attorney Gen. Eric Holder ordering them to adopt a “presumption of openness,” Reps. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) said. Additionally, the lawmakers pointed to a backlog of requests for information at some agencies, an excessive use of exemptions allowing officials to withhold information and exorbitant — and potentially illegal — fee assessments. 


President Obama continues to fill his cabinet, his latest pick for the Department of Interior.