After months of financial turmoil, an Energy Department-backed lithium ion battery company has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The company, Ener1, received a $118 million grant from DOE in 2010 as part of the president’s stimulus package. The money, which went to Ener1 subsidiary EnerDel, aimed to promote renewable energy storage battery technology for electrical grid use. But despite generous federal support for the company, Ener1 was racked by problems last year. In October, NASDAQ delisted the company due to non-compliance with Securities and Exchange Commission filing requirements. A … More

The remarks of Alan Krueger, chairman of Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers, asserting that taxing the rich can spur economic growth demonstrate that he and the Administration are nothing if not consistent in their mistakes. Krueger says that there is growing income inequality in the United States, that this growing inequality contributes to slowing economic growth, and that raising taxes on the wealthy to offset some of this growing income inequality would actually stimulate the economy in the near term. While income inequality in the United States is growing, the … More

A California company has been hired to provide 450,000 gallons of advanced biofuels to the U.S. Navy – the “single largest purchase of biofuel in government history,” according to the Navy – at $15 per gallon, or about four times the market price of conventional jet fuel. The Institute for Energy Research unearthed the purchase in a recent post on its website: Last week, the Navy signed a contract with two biofuel companies to purchase 450,000 gallons of advanced biofuels at $12 million to assist in President Obama’s goal to … More

Two new chapters in the Solyndra scandal were written today, one involving a potential bailout of the company and the latest regarding Congress’s move to subpoena the White House for related communications. Meanwhile, the Department of Energy’s Office of Inspector General is “is investigating more than 100 potential instances of criminal abuse of stimulus loan monies,” according to a Daily Caller report. The Washington Timesreports on the Solyndra subpoena: By a 14-9 party-line vote the Energy and Commerce Committee’s investigative subcommittee authorized issuing a subpoena for any White House documents … More

Imagine a high-speed train zooming down hundreds of miles of glistening train track stretching across sunny California, connecting Anaheim to San Francisco. It’s a bullet train dream, and it’s a prime example of President Barack Obama’s latest plan to create jobs in America. The trouble is that this dream is far from reality. The Los Angeles Times reported this week that the California high-speed train–which is funded in part by $3 billion in federal grants from President Obama’s stimulus–is now expected to cost $98 billion, twice what was expected, and will … More

President Obama’s “blame conservatives” rhetoric was on full display yesterday as he described his plan to provide relief to students overburdened by loan debt that they voluntarily assumed. “We can’t wait for Congress to do its job, so where they won’t act, I will,” Obama told a crowd of Denver college students yesterday afternoon. The President’s plan includes limiting to 10 percent of discretionary annual income the amount of money lenders can require students to pay. It would also reduce from 25 to 20 the number of years students have to … More

It sounds like a former Obama Administration official is changing his tune on two of the President’s early stimulus efforts. Austan Goolsbee, former chairman of President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers, says that in retrospect he would not have supported the Cash for Clunkers program or the home buyer tax credit. Politico reports: “Because we didn’t know if [economic recovery was] going to be short or long,” the Obama administration tried measures to address both scenarios, Goolsbee explained on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “If you look at Cash for Clunkers or the first home … More

Today marks the 1,000th day of Barack Obama’s presidency, and unfortunately for America, those days have been marked by deeper deficits, lost jobs, prolonged unemployment, and bigger government. Meanwhile, many of those charged with leading the federal government have all but abdicated their responsibilities. The national debt stands at $14.9 trillion–$4.2 trillion of which has been added since Obama took his oath of office. Fourteen million Americans are unemployed–that’s 9.1 percent of the workforce. The unemployment rate has been above nine percent for 840 of the 1000 days, and the average unemployed worker has … More

If something is too big to swallow, you cut it into bite-sized pieces.  But that won’t improve the taste—unless you jettison any stinky stuff. Likewise, the notion of splitting-up President Obama’s Senate-rejected 326-page “jobs bill” won’t improve any of the proposals. It’s good that the break-up would prevent the classic congressional strategy of blending the good and the bad together into one piece of legislation.  That strategy expects that Congressmen will hold their noses and vote for a package when they’re not given a choice to remove the worst parts. … More

In the currently battered U.S. economy, with high unemployment and bleak growth prospects, politics has become a contest of dueling jobs plans: politicians of every stripe have them. Their motivation may be sincere, but their concept is wrong – and they are just perpetuating the myth that government can create jobs. It can’t. It can only maintain conditions that are conducive to economic growth. That is the real engine of job creation, and it’s where policymakers should place their focus. Job creation is a function of producers meeting the demands … More