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Tesla Motors recently reported that it has received close to 400,000 orders for its yet to be released, $35,000 Model 3. Most of the pre-ordered vehicles are not even expected to be delivered until after 2018. While congratulations may be in order to Tesla for seemingly developing a mainstream electric vehicle (EV) that has so much consumer interest that demand is far outpacing supply, one question must be asked. Why the hell is the vehicle being subsidized to the tune of $1.5 billion in future tax credits? If Tesla has proven that EVs can be profitably manufactured, it is...

Over 10 years ago the state began an experiment in economic development policy. Gov. Jennifer Granholm pushed through a plan to gradually spend $2 billion through a “21st Century Jobs Fund.” Famously, she told Michiganders that they would be “blown away” by the incredible results of this spending. Well, the results are in and it’s hard to describe the 21st Century Jobs Fund as anything other than a complete failure. The money has all been spent, but no one has been blown away. And if new jobs have been created by this spending, they have not been consistently or coherently...

As it continues to defy common sense and the laws of economics with its lofty stock price, Tesla has again shown it has little corporate competence in the ability to deliver a consistently functional product that satisfies customers. The latest evidence comes in the recently rolled out Model X, which is allegedly an SUV, but looks like just another car. Retailing at a price only the extremely wealthy can afford ($138,000), the all-electric follow-up to the similarly troubled Model S automobile has stumbled out of the gate. The problems were outlined in a Consumer Reports article posted online Tuesday,...

Millions of poor Americans will be eligible for federal subsidies to help pay the cost of Internet service after new regulations were approved in a whirlwind Federal Communications Commission meeting on Thursday. The FCC voted to expand its 30-year-old program called Lifeline, which previously offered $9.25 in subsidies for phone and basic cell service. The three Democratic commissioners approved the proposal over opposition from the two Republicans, who have concerns about the program's budget. The vote was delayed for more than three hours as Republicans accused FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler of scuttling a late-night compromise to bring them on board....

When taxpayers lost more than a half-billion dollars on the failed solar manufacturer Solyndra, they were understandably upset. But Solyndra isn’t the only corporate body in the graveyard of green bankruptcies. And more are surely on the way. Over a decade ago Congress created a loan-guarantee program that allows the Department of Energy (DOE) to gamble taxpayers’ money to promote “clean” energy projects. The 2009 stimulus package created a new loan-guarantee program that expanded the pot of money available. Many of the companies taking advantage of the program also rake in a wide assortment of other state and federal tax...

If solar and wind were indeed catching up to other forms of electricity generation, they wouldn’t need current subsidies, much less ever-growing ones. Such are the incredible costs of producing energy with “free fuel" While driving the mostly empty and flat 1,000 miles from Houston to Colorado Springs recently, I noticed something I hadn’t seen much just a few years ago—lots of wind farms dotting the landscape, but none anywhere near even small population centers. And another funny thing, though: Invariably, many of the turbines weren’t moving and one of the largest appeared to have about 100 turbines, yet I...

German power giant E.ON on Wednesday said it booked a €7.0 billion ($7.7-billion) net loss in 2015 and warned that “the course ahead will be tougher and longer than anticipated”. […] German power utilities have complained that the country’s transition from conventional carbon fuels to greener, cleaner sources of energy is squeezing their margins. The cost of having to close down their nuclear power plants and the heavy subsidies afforded to renewable energy have pushed them deeply into the red, the companies argue. The glut of government-subsidized solar, wind and other renewable power has led to a collapse in wholesale...

**SNIP** Hundreds of thousands of people lose subsidies under the health law, or even their policies, when they get tangled in a web of paperwork problems involving income, citizenship and taxes. Some are dealing with serious illnesses like cancer. Advocates fear the problems, if left unresolved, could undermine the nation's historic gains in health insurance. Walk Whitlow was under treatment for cancer when he found out his financial assistance under President Barack Obama's health care law got slashed - meaning his premium quadrupled and his deductible went from $900 to $4,600. Lynn Herrin got irritated when she had to pay...

Wall Street, media and government darling Tesla Motors has seen its stock price nearly halved from seven months ago. For so long it has seemed that ongoing bad news never had an effect on the heavily subsidized upstart, but now perhaps the Teflon is eroding off CEO Elon Musk. The precipitous, rapid descent preceded last week's horrid earnings report. USA Today helped smear lipstick on the pig, cheerily noting shares rose "14 percent at one point" after its earnings "miss" on Wednesday, because Musk delivered investors a "rosy outlook for the rest of 2016." This was in context of...

"There's an Iowa way of doing this, and the rest of the candidates did it the Iowa way," Majda Sarkic, a spokeswoman for the pro-ethanol group America's Renewable Future, told National Review days before the Iowa caucuses. All of the candidates except Ted Cruz, that is. In a highly unusual move for a man who sought, and ultimately won, the support of Iowa caucus-goers, Cruz didn't court, kowtow to, or bow down before King Corn. From the time they arrived in the Senate eyeing a presidential run three years ago, he and his advisers have known that his opposition to...

Republican Sen. Ted Cruz managed to snag Iowa’s heaviest corn-producing counties despite his opposition to federal mandates and subsidies for ethanol. Does this mean King Corn’s days are numbered in the Hawkeye State? Cruz snatched victory from challenger business mogul Donald Trump Monday night, but what’s most interesting is Iowa counties that grow the most corn supported the Texas senator despite his opposition to ethanol subsidies — ethanol is mostly made from corn.-snip-Trump also jumped on Cruz for his opposition to ethanol, warning Iowans Cruz would “destroy” the industry if he wins Monday night’s caucus.“He will destroy your ethanol business...

Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz explains why he opposes farm subsidies as well as biofuel mandates.

Obamacare enrollment is lagging far behind what economists had projected, the Congressional Budget Office said in a new report that cuts the total number of customers expected to buy plans on the exchanges from 21 million down to just 13 million this year. Of those, 11 million will be getting government subsidies - down from the 15 million the CBO had projected just a year ago. The updated projections came as part of the CBO's 2016 budget outlook, and confirm the administration's own dim estimates of how many people would take advantage of the health exchanges, which are at the...

Cruz tries for a respectable showing in Iowa with Trump and the governor against him There are few things that energy-policy experts of all political stripes can agree on - but one of them is that mandates and subsidies to promote the use of corn ethanol (a policy first implemented by Jimmy Carter) are wasteful boondoggles that harm our environment and food supply while imposing billions of dollars of hidden costs on consumers. However, most energy-policy experts are not running for president in the Iowa caucuses. Ted Cruz, however, is running in the Iowa caucuses, and this week he found...

One of the most destructive environmental subsidies in the United States has found an enthusiastic supporter in Donald Trump. "The EPA should ensure that biofuel ... blend levels match the statutory level set by Congress," he said yesterday in Iowa, adding that he was "there with you 100 percent" on continuing federal support for ethanol. "You're going to get a really fair shake from me." The ethanol lobby has rigorously courted Trump since April, arranging to speak at least weekly, including at least three in-person meetings, in addition to an ethanol-plant tour, the Wall Street Journal reports. Trump's support for...

"...Corn has long been king in Iowa, the nation's top corn-producing state, implanting in Iowa voters a sentiment that every candidate must cheer Washington's backing for ethanol. Since 2011, though, that universal backing has been eroding. Congress decided at the end of 2011 not to renew a tax credit that cost the government $6 billion a year. Critics of the government’s ethanol policy then set their targets on the ethanol mandate, which requires refineries to blend an increasing amount of biofuels into the U.S. gasoline supply each year. At the ethanol summit Tuesday, Mr. Trump also read a prepared statement...

Donald Trump said Tuesday that federal regulators should increase the amount of ethanol blended into the nation’s gasoline supply. Speaking at an event hosted by the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association, Trump, a real estate mogul and the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, said the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ought to follow the ethanol volumes Congress set in 2007. “The EPA should ensure that biofuel ... blend levels match the statutory level set by Congress under the [renewable fuel standard],” Trump said. The mandate is popular in Iowa, which hosts the nation's first caucuses.

Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad would like to see Ted Cruz defeated, he said on Tuesday. The Iowa governor, whose powerful network of supporters is a prized political commodity, was speaking to reporters at the Iowa Renewable Fuels Summit. Branstad's son Eric is leading efforts to portray the Texas senator as hostile to ethanol, a narrative Cruz has been trying to stifle in recent weeks. Asked if he'd like the Texas senator to lose, Governor Branstad said, "Yes." "I think it would be very damaging to our state," he continued, according to Iowa's Channel 13 news. "I believe it would be...

For more than 30 years, Iowa's obsession with its ethanol fuel industry has played an outsize role in its presidential caucuses. The winner of every caucus in both parties during that period has strongly backed federal subsidies or mandates for the corn-grown fuel. That winning streak could end this year if Senator Ted Cruz takes Iowa. Polls currently show him with a narrow lead. In 2008, Fred Thompson told me he didn't see merit in subsidizing one fuel over another, but in Iowa's GOP caucus that year "opposing ethanol was like pushing against a mountain." Hillary Clinton voted against ethanol...

“If any candidate you're considering won't go to Iowa and tell Iowans that Big Corn's special status needs to end, why do you think he or she will go to Washington and tell the other ten thousand special interest groups that their special goodies need to come to an end?”Are you completely, totally, thoroughly repulsed, disgusted, furious, mortified, mystified, and aghast at how special interests seem to control Washington while ordinary Americans like you and I pay for their goodies on a seemingly endless basis? To paraphrase the late, great Jerry Reed – they get the goldmine and we get...