Free Republic

Suffice to say, all is not well for the Electric Vehicle (EV) industry these days. Despite ample subsidies from the federal government, EV sales are slumping. ... there have been numerous reports of people being trapped inside EVs due to dead batteries. In some of these cases, toddlers have been locked inside of sweltering cars. In one example, on June 20, Renee Sanchez was eager to take her two-year-old granddaughter to the Phoenix Zoo. Early that morning, Sanchez strapped the toddler into the backseat of her Model Y Tesla. After closing the rear door, Sanchez attempted to open the front...

Just when you think things couldn’t get worse on the fiscal front, Washington once again manages to exceed expectations. One couldn’t help but get that impression from the latest update to the nation’s (poor) budget situation.The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) recently released revised estimates of the nation’s budget and economic outlook over the coming years. While the prior version of the document, released in February, didn’t exactly show a fiscally responsible federal government, the intervening four months saw lawmakers digging taxpayers — that’s you and me — into an even deeper hole.More Spending by Congress and BidenOverall, CBO increased the...

Fisker Group Inc., the EV startup founded by famed designer Henrik Fisker, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection — a capstone to months of problems with its Ocean SUV that included recalls and dozens of lemon law lawsuits. The California-based company, which filed for bankruptcy in Delaware District Court, had been seeking a deal with another automaker in a last-ditch effort to rescue the enterprise. The company estimated assets of $500 to $1 billion and liabilities of between $100 million and $500 million, according to the filing. Fisker reported between 200 and 999 creditors, including SAP, Adobe, Salesforce and Ansys,...

In Chicago, the birthplace of the skyscraper, the total downtown office vacancy rate has jumped to 25.1%, a new record high, according to data from real estate firm CBRE. The rate has climbed steadily since the end of 2018, when it stood at 13.4%. “We just don’t have the same number of people working in the Loop as before,” said Dan McMillen, a real estate professor at the University of Illinois Chicago. Now, the city says it is investing in its real estate. Just like a mortgage, interest rates on billion-dollar loans used to build skyscrapers are rising. Those high...

Newcomer is the new word for illegal aliens. In Biden's America, there is a new word for everything. In Michigan, Democrat Governor Gretchen Whitmer has gone so far as to name a rent assistance program the Newcomer Rental Subsidy program. It offers landlords $500 for each illegal alien. The program "provides Refugees and other Newcomer population-eligible households with rental assistance up to $500 per month for up to 12 months, with eligibility based on immigration status and household income."Program applicants must have eligible immigration status, which includes refugees, asylum-seekers, special immigration visa holders, victims of human trafficking, Cubans, Haitians, Afghan...

On Wednesday, while campaigning in Arizona, Joe Biden revealed that the government reached an $8.5 billion deal with U.S. chipmaker Intel to build four plants in the U.S. that will build advanced computer chips. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said the deal would enable the U.S. to manufacture 20% of the world's most advanced computer chips by 2030 and create 30,000 jobs. “Failure is not an option — leading-edge chips are the core of our innovation system, especially when it comes to advances in artificial intelligence and our military systems,” Raimondo told reporters. “We can’t just design chips. We have to...

The Biden administration is classifying some of the country’s most elite and exclusive locales as “low-income” areas, making them eligible for electric vehicle (EV) charger subsidy programs. The administration’s EV charger tax credit program — made possible by the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), President Joe Biden’s signature climate bill — is specifically designed to route subsidies to “low-income” or “non-urban” areas of the country. The “low-income” emphasis for eligibility aligns in spirit with the Biden administration’s wider pursuit of so-called “environmental justice,” which is effectively the combination of social justice ideology and green policy.Numerous elite hangouts and locales — including...

Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm made $1.6 million from an electric car company the Biden administration boosted that just went bankrupt. Proterra, an electric bus and battery company that President Joe Biden touted as a success of his green energy initiative, filed for bankruptcy in August. Last week, it finally sold its embattled battery business at a rock-bottom price as part of the bankruptcy proceeding. The rise and fall of Proterra demonstrates once again that politicians should refrain from betting taxpayers’ money on business ventures to advance their political agenda. According to the Wall Street Journal, Proterra has sold only 550...

On Friday’s broadcast of Bloomberg’s “The Open,” acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su responded to a question on why the Biden administration is using tax dollars to give wealthy people credits to buy expensive electric cars by stating that they’re trying to create jobs and people support tax credits that help create jobs, and also because there’s a climate crisis. After Su mentioned the Biden administration’s economic policies, host Jonathan Ferro asked, “Let’s talk about those policies. There is something really peculiar going on at the moment. If you think about what’s happening at the picket line, they have serious...

Wopke Hoekstra, the former Dutch minister of finance and commissioner designate for climate action, vowed to lay the basis for a Green Deal 2.0 in his bid to convince members of the climate committee in the EU Parliament in Strasbourg on Monday (2 October). He would not be a simple “caretaker commissioner,” said Hoekstra, even though his term will end with the current commission next year. He pledged to commit to reducing CO2 emissions by 90 percent by 2040 and finalize plans in January, following the advice of the EU advisory board for the climate. And he had some strong...

Solar should be competing for sales in the marketplace, not for subsidies in Washington,' ... The Biden administration quietly issued a 59-page report outlining the current scope of federal energy-related subsidies revealed that the renewable energy sector enjoys significantly larger taxpayer backing than the fossil fuel industry. The report — authored by the Department of Energy's Energy Information Administration (EIA) and published in August — represents the first of its kind since 2018. The EIA analyzed data from 2016 through 2022, and determined that, during that time period, the federal government doled out $183.3 billion in direct and mainly indirect...

BRUSSELS, Belgium: This week, the European Commission launched an investigation into the influx of Chinese electric vehicles (EV) to protect European Union (EU) producers. In the investigation, the commission will decide whether to impose punitive tariffs against cheaper Chinese EV imports, which it claims benefit from state subsidies. In her annual address to the European parliament, Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, said, "Global markets are now flooded with cheaper electric cars. And their price is kept artificially low by huge state subsidies." In its highest-profile case against China since an EU probe into Chinese solar panels...

The Biden administration’s massive expansion of food stamp benefits is linked to at least a 15% rise in grocery prices, a new study said on Thursday. President Biden’s Department of Agriculture rolled out revised nutritional standards for federal food benefits in 2021 that expanded the program by roughly 25% from pre-COVID pandemic levels. Overall spending on the Supplemental Assistance Nutrition Program (SNAP) more than doubled between 2019 and 2022, according to findings from the Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA) previewed by Fox News Digital. It went from $4.5 billion in 2019 to $11 billion in 2022, the study said.

In a move that gives the lie to years of propaganda claiming falling costs, the wind industry’s leading lobbyists have written to the Government threatening to abandon the U.K. unless subsidies for their companies are hugely increased. The industry lobbyists claim that unforeseen rising costs now require three actions: A revision to the auction rules so that the winners are not determined by lowest bids but by an administrative decision that weights bids according to their ‘value’ in contributing towards the Net Zero targets. Special new targets and thus market shares for floating offshore wind, one of the most expensive...

"As fuel taxes plummet, states weigh charging by the mile instead of the tank.” That was the headline of a recent AP story, which should scare freedom-loving citizens everywhere. And you can place the blame squarely on government-subsidized EVs for this terrible new development. The background is that state and federal gasoline taxes aren’t raising “enough” money these days to pay for roadway construction and maintenance. And a big reason for the growing shortfall is the increase in electric vehicles. EVs get massive tax subsidies to convince people to buy them, but their owners don’t pay gasoline taxes, for the...

The victor of the 2024 election is set to face a number of new legislative deadlines immediately upon entering office that could have drastic effects on the country’s economy. More than a dozen candidates are eyeing the Oval Office in 2024, positioning themselves as the best choice to address the nation’s cultural and economic challenges. However, upon taking office in 2024, the winner of the presidential election must deal with the impending expirations of both the 2017 tax law as well as subsidies included in Obamacare. On top of that, the debt limit bill is also set to expire just...

This week the Trump administration managed to impose a massive tax increase on middle-income families beginning in 2018. You could be excused for missing this story if you were focusing instead on President Trump’s draconian budget or Republican efforts to take away health care from tens of millions of people. But, indeed, on Monday, the Trump Health Care Tax was born.

In addition to being illegal, President Biden's attempt to grant loan forgiveness to college students transfers wealth from the working class to scions of the upper class. Fifty-six percent of the student debt is owed by people who went to grad school. None of this debt is owed by people who never went to college. Persons earning as much as $125,000 a year qualify for Biden's debt forgiveness program. Likewise, subsidies for electric vehicles (EVs) assist wealthier Americans to purchase vehicles that are out of the price range of what the working class can afford. The majority of those receiving...

The European Commission is seeking feedback on whether the 27-country bloc needs to loosen state aid rules to allow governments to support companies affected by the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act, with plans for a European fund in future. The $430 billion act, which grants consumers tax credits for U.S.-produced electric vehicles (EV) and other green products, has triggered fears it could disadvantage European Union companies and tempt businesses to relocate to the United States. […] The EU executive will ask countries if looser state aid rules known as the temporary crisis framework, adopted in March for businesses hit by the...

Having survived the recent cabinet reshuffle the international development secretary, Penny Mordaunt, is confronted with the biggest headache of her short ministerial career: the fallout of the US intention to cut funding to UNRWA, which constitutes one of the most serious challenges to UK policies in the Middle East. Donald Trump’s threat to cut financial assistance to the UN agency specifically responsible for Palestinian refugees will be a disaster not only for the refugees but also for Israel and neighbouring countries. It does not advance US interests either. Provoked by the Palestinian rejection of Trump’s decision to recognise Jerusalem as...