Established in the waning days of the Bush Administration, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing Program lent a total of $8.3 billion (out of the budgeted $25 billion) to Nissan, Tesla, Ford and Fisker, yet has not been able to make new loans for a number of reasons since 2011.
That status, however, is about to change.
Autoblog Green reports DOE secretary Earnest Moniz announced the program will be retooled with a focus upon suppliers. Improvements to the program will include clarifying eligibility requirements for potential applicants, better responsiveness toward applicants, and a revised application process.
As for said applicants, the program wants to bring in companies who help make fuel-efficient vehicles possible, including suppliers of “advanced engines and powertrains, light-weighting materials, advanced electronics, and fuel-efficient tires.”
Did Alvar Aalto draw the DoE’s building (which I assume that is in the pic) too?
See this typical piece of his from Helsinki: https://www.google.com/imghp?q=helsinki+talo+enso
The James V. Forrestal Building was a joint venture between Curtis & Davis, Fordyce and Hamby Associates, and Frank Grad & Sons. Construction began in September of 1965, and finished in November of 1969.
Ah, so they just plagiarized him. ;-)
Naah, probably not. Could have been the other way around, for all I know. (Though I think he did buildings in that style before then. But then, maybe so did they.)
It’s like with cars, every now and then everybody realises how similar everything in the old style looks, so… Everybody adopts exactly the same new style.
And then they complain to their kids how interchangeable everything looks nowadays. Yeah, well, newsflash, Dad: Just like you thought *your* Dad was nuts, going on about how similar all cars looked when you were young and he no more, and you longed to tell him that his cherished 1930s cars all looked exactly the same with their running boards and upright radiators…
JUST like that, all the cars from *your* cherished 1950s looked exactly the same to me, each with the same humongous chrome-grin grilles up front and silly aerospace fins in back; and JUST as silly as Grampa to you, did you sound to me with your absurd claim that all the fine and infinitely varied automobiles of *my* cherished decade (the 1970s, in this case) “all look alike”!
Truth is … the DOE along with the entire US Government needs to get its nose the h*ll out of the Auto Industry and in fact all Industries completely .
Fact is each and every place the DOE and the Feds in general [ general .. hint hint .. I’ll say no more ] stuck their noses in .. subsidized .. given low interest guaranteed loans etc has come back to bite us ( Tax Payers ) on the @$& .. each and every time . From TESLA [ who despite the rhetoric still owes the Feds a godawful bundle ] to Fisker .. to Detroit Electric .. to SpaceX etc … and right on down to the SSDD SNAFU that is GM [ sorry ] and FCA … we’ve [ tax payers ] taken it on the chin while the owners/investors of those businesses .. Green or otherwise … have taken us …. for a bundle .
Enough already !
Amen! ^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Absolutely.
We have this stuff, called debt, it needs attention; not programs to give money to friends of politicians.
Actually, that artificially-induced “debt. DEBT!” panic is just the 0.1%’s latest gambit to keep the sheeple compliant and let them keep gutting the middle class that once was.
In actuality, it’s really not that bad at all.
HTH!
It may be artificially induced, but it’s real debt, on OUR credit card. The DOE is just one of a large number of agencies that are handing out grants that are many times their actual budget, adding up to hundreds of $billions, producing very little in economic activity, and even less in innovation. That money would do more good for the economy if it stayed with the taxpayers, who could spend it more judiciously than any government program.
You may have misunderstood me. Sure, the debt is real; it just isn’t such a big deal as it’s recently been made out to be. Really, it just isn’t. Read some Keynes (he’s still right), or Krugman’s blog and columns on NYT.
What is artificial is the general (and your specific) anxiety about it. Relax, and tell the nitwits who are panicking to stop.
Please explain how Tesla still owes the Feds money.
That makes two of us. I’d like to know how you concluded Tesla owes the Feds loan money. Didn’t you hear? they paid it back early.
If it moves, Tax it
If it continues to move Regulate it!
If it stops moving, Subsidize it!
Amen and halleluyah.
Line up, well-connected friends, and get your transfer payments from people who have less money than you. Make millions or lose it all. No problem, you are playing the game with money confiscated from someone else.
> Truth is … the DOE along with the entire US Government needs to get its nose the h*ll out of the Auto Industry and in fact all Industries completely .
Weren’t you (and probably the rest of the Japanese car fans above) just praising the virtues of Subaru, aka Fuji Heavy Industries, ie. prototypical keiretsu?
I wonder if this is the normal sort of clueless, or the willful kind.
Is that a, early 80’s Sentra Wagon in that pic? My brother had a really mint 5-speed Sentra Wagon in the late 90’s, until he smashed it. It was actually a nice care, and I loved that you could open the rear vent windows from the drivers seat. Actually, I love that it just had rear vent windows. Those were great.