$25 Billion to Promote Electric Cars Is Untouched
A123 Systems, a battery maker in Massachusetts, is seeking $1.8 billion.
By LESLIE WAYNE
Published: February 26, 2009
WASHINGTON — The future of the American auto industry is getting off to a slow start.
Politicians are breaking down the door asking why the money isn’t being sent out,” said Michael Carr, counsel to the Senate Energy Committee, which oversees the Energy Department.
It is a question that Lachlan W. Seward, director of the program, says he hears a lot these days. “We’re moving with a sense of urgency,” said Mr. Seward, who also oversaw the Chrysler Loan Guarantee Board from 1981 to 1984. “But at the same time we are trying to do this in a responsible way that reflects prudent credit policy and taxpayer protections.”
Until now, the program has gotten caught in the shifting priorities of two administrations. The program was not funded until September 2008. Then, the Bush administration considered using the Energy Department fund to help bail out G.M. and Chrysler, an idea that was later rejected. After that, President Obama had to name a new cabinet. As soon as Steven Chu took office as energy secretary, some members of Congress started applying pressure on the fund.
As soon as Steven Chu took office as energy secretary, some members of Congress started applying pressure on the fund.
Senator Evan Bayh, Democrat of Indiana, wrote Secretary Chu on Jan. 23, two days after he was sworn in, to say the agency is “under an obligation to issue the loans as soon as possible.” ...
Senators Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California, and Olympia J. Snowe, Republican of Maine, who have led a bipartisan effort to increase fuel-mileage standards, followed with a letter calling for an “aggressive timeline” in issuing loans....
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/27/business/energy-environment/27green.html
Spinner worked there until 2010 as soon as the investigation started he took off....and one can see the pressure Chu underwent. The NYSlimes, of course, taking potshots at the Bush Adm for being so slow.
This from a pissed off greenie:
“Steve Spinner- Worked for Matt Rogers and Lachlan Seward. Did their bidding. Suddenly left DOE as first investigations began.
Steve Spinner is a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress focusing on Energy Policy. Based in Silicon Valley, he is also an advisor at Silver Lake Sumeru as well as numerous other cleantech and Internet companies. In September, 2010, Mr. Spinner concluded his appointment as the loan programs advisor in the Office of the Secretary in the U.S. Department of Energy focused on implementation of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Appointed on April 29, 2009, Mr. Spinner helped oversee the more than $100 billion of loan guarantee and direct lending authority for the Title XVII Loan Guarantee Program, or LGP, and the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing, or ATVM, loan program. He worked closely with the commercial lending, state and regional development finance agencies, (socialist - bronxville) venture capital, private equity, and entrepreneurial communities. He was also the department’s member on the White House Business Council, the White House
Innovation Cohort, and the White House Automotive Communities Task Force which was run by STEVE RATTNER, now under criminal prosecution.”....contin
http://corruptiondoe.weebly.com/steve-spinner.html
Wahid Hamid (Obama’s Pakistan rommie at Occidental) is also on the board of the business council. I think I posted that here before. Hamid is also on the board or runs the Pakistan Council or Institute set up by Hillary Clinton and himself a while back. His other Pakistan rommie was Chandoo from Westchester...they collected big money for his campaign. I’m sure they weren’t neglected nor their circle in Pakistan. Hamid was in China a few years ago setting up a tech company called HANDS. I tried to find out more at the time but could only find that he worked with a professor at their top university. I wondered if they weren’t hooking them up to the State Dept. There’s something huge going on...almost like a world heist but thereagain I’m a crazytalker.
Steve Rattner, Counselor to the Secretary of the Treasury Rattner will join the Treasury Department as Counselor to the Secretary where he will serve as an adviser on a variety of economic and financial matters, and will lead the Treasury’s efforts with regard to the automobile sector. Rattner most recently was Managing Principal at Quadrangle Group, LLC since 2000. Prior to that, he was Deputy Chairman at Lazard Frères & Co. LLC. At Lazard Frères & Co. LLC he also served as Deputy Chief Executive from 1997-1999 and Managing Director from 1989 – 1997. From 1984 -1989, Rattner served as Associate, Vice President, Principal and Managing Director at Morgan Stanley and Associate, Vice President at Lehman Brothers Kuhn Loeb, Inc from 1982-1984. He was a correspondent for The New York Times from 1975 – 1982. Rattner received his B.A. with Honors in Economics from Brown University in 1974, and awarded Harvey Baker Fellowship for Graduate Study.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/18/AR2010111806124.html
Former Obama car czar Steven Rattner charged in pay-for-play scheme
By Zachary A. Goldfarb
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, November 18, 2010; 10:47 PM
State and federal authorities on Thursday charged former Obama administration car czar Steven Rattner with participating in a “pay-for-play” scheme to win business from New York state’s pension fund, and sought more than $30 million in penalties.
New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo sued Rattner for $26 million and sought to ban him from working on Wall Street permanently. Rattner, meanwhile, agreed to settle a suit brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission by paying $6.2 million and accepting a two-year ban from Wall Street.