Remember when, during the State of the Union on Tuesday night, President Obama was lauding the promise of green energy and (rather flippantly, in my opinion) remarked that "some technologies don't pan out; some technologies fail"? Yes, about that (emphasis mine):
WASHINGTON, DC – Congressman Cliff Stearns (R-FL), Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, is sounding alarm bells in response to today’s news that battery maker Ener1 has filed for bankruptcy. Ener1 was previously awarded a $118.5 million stimulus grant from the Department of Energy. Ener1 joins other DOE endorsed companies Solyndra and Beacon Power in bankruptcy. Vice President Biden visited Ener1 one year ago, January 26, 2011, the day after the President pledged in his State of the Union address to put one million advanced technology vehicles on the road by 2015 with the help of taxpayer funding. On several occasions, Biden called the company “Enron one” during his visit, invoking a seemingly unintentional but ultimately prescient reference to the collapse of the energy giant Enron. The company was also ranked number 67 in the White House Report: 100 Recovery Projects that are Changing America.
Another taxpayer-backed clean energy venture bites the dust.