The Failed Promise of LG Chemical (or, How Government Use of Taxpayer Dollars Guarantees Nothing)

WOOD TV is breaking the story about what is really happening at LG Chem in Holland, the lithium battery plant touted by the President as, "These are not just ANY jobs, these are the jobs of the future!" (http://www.woodtv.com/dpp/news/target_8/Volt-no-jolt-LG-Chem-employees-idle). The fed invested $151 million to get the plant built in the first place, and millions more in job training and other incidental expenses. ONE HALF of the plant's 200 employees are paid directly by the federal government, yet in the THREE YEARS that the plant has been in existence, not one single battery has been produced. So what have these employees of the future been doing with their time? According to the report, playing cards, making the grounds look pretty, even doing volunteer work at area charities while on the clock!

Why is this important? Two reasons.

First, this is just one more example of what happens when the government picks winners and losers based upon a highly improbable agenda. Solyndra, A123, and LG Chem are just a few of the many "green" companies that were part of the vaunted plan to catapault us into the future that, instead, went belly-up without even coming close to delivering on their inflated promises.

Second, this is a good indicator of what is in store for Michigan if Proposal 3 passes, and the state is forced to obtain 25% of our energy from "green" technologies. Proponents of the measure tell us that it will create 98,000 jobs "that cannot be outsourced." How likely is this when we can't even make the companies we have NOW deliver on their promises - despite the infusion of multiplied hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars?

The basic reason behind these failures? The end products are too expensive to make it feasible for consumers to make the switch - especially in this economy.

The Chevy Volt has a MSRP of $39,000. How many of us can afford this price, or even the lease payments?

Wind energy? The problem here is our current electrical grid; it simply cannot handle the additional output from all of the wind farms being proposed around the nation. This fundamental problem would have to be addressed in Michigan as well. According to a NY Times article (8/28/08, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/27/business/27grid.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0), the entire national grid will have to be rebuilt from the ground-up to accommodate the input from wind turbines. The windiest sites have not yet even been built because we simply have no way to transport the electricity from them to the load centers. For those areas already employing wind farms across the nation, many of the turbines spend a signifiant portion of their time idle. Why? It would overload the transmission lines, which in turn would result in the wind energy companies paying heavy fees to enable them to continue dumping power into the grid - negating the hoped-for reduction in energy costs.

I could go on, but there really is no point. The problems are self-evident, and continuing to throw taxpayer dollars at them isn't solving them. Yes, we must continue to pursue cleaner energy options, but we must also do so in a manner that produces products that are affordable for the average consumer while not bankrupting us in the process.