Tuesday, April 17, 2012

EnerDel: $12 Million from Indiana Taxpayers

Photo by Egil Kvaleberg
EnerDel is a manufacturer of batteries for electric vehicles like the Think Global Pivco PIV3 car pictured at right. They've received a lot of tax payer money to research and build new "green" EV car batteries including $118 million in stimulus grants.

Dick Lugar

Sentor Dick Lugar (R-IN) was instrumental in steering that money to the "green" battery manufacturer. Lugar also earmarked $6.5 million to the company. But to top it all off, the spreadsheet data which accompanies the Good Jobs First report* (h/t: Instapundit) that came out yesterday, indicates that EnerDel recieved about $12 million from Indiana taxpayers. EnerDel was second only to Arcadia Resources, Inc. among Indiana companies receiving Indiana tax credits and rebates.

Dick Lugar's fifth largest contributor, Cummins, Inc., came in sixth in Indiana in the Good Jobs First data with tax credits and rebates totaling $5 million. A few Cummins employees also donated to Richard Mourdock (R-IN). Mourdock hopes to unseat Obama's favorite Republican in Indiana's May 8th primary.

Click on the image below for more details or download the spreadsheet and find the companies in your state that you're subsidizing.


EnerDel

Last October EnerDel's parent company, Ener1, was de-listed from the NASDAQ. This past January, Ener1 declared bankruptcy. In short, it's the Solyndra of Indiana. And just as Obama took credit for Solyndra's "success" in 2011 and distance himself from it earlier this year, we see Dick Lugar praising EnerDel when the money was awarded--touring the factory even--while going AWOL now. Indiana needs to replace him on May 8th with someone who will be accountable to Hoosier voters: Richard Mourdock.

* The Good Jobs First report "Paying Taxes to the Boss" argues that state tax credit and rebate programs for corporations as well as state grants to companies are like your boss collecting and keeping state income taxes. I would argue that such programs are incentives offered by central planners at the state capital. In short, I disagree on the spin, but agree that they need to end.

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freespeak said...
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