Good news for Obama: Government-subsidized batterymaker A123 may make it past election before going bankrupt. From Reuters:
The company, which received a $249 million grant from the Obama administration as part of a program to develop advanced lithium-ion batteries, said in documents filed with U.S. regulators that it “expects to have approximately four to five months of cash to support its ongoing operations” based on its recent monthly spending average. [E.A.]
A123 supplies batteries for the troubled Fisker company as well as other auto manufacturers. It says it intends to raise more money. …
P.S.: Here’s a nagging question Obama chronicler Jonathan Alter may be able to answer: In his 2011 State of the Union address, Obama laid out a plan to have “a million electric vehicles on the road by 2015,” a goal that now looks increasingly unrealistic insane. Did Obama know the million-EV goal was BS when he announced it? Was he misled by advisers? If the latter, have any suffered adverse consequences ? Was he too inexperienced to know the extent to which bureaucracies tend to tell the boss what he wants to hear, even if it’s a fantasy? Or did he not care?