And the hits just keep on coming! Why isn't the Left more ticked off about these government-backed green energy projects? When corporate executives award themselves high incomes, derived from the profits they earn by providing a product/service that people actually want to buy in the private sector, it's a heinous crime; but when the execs of ailing, taxpayer subsidized, renewable energy companies take a little off the top, there's no outcry? Does their hypocrisy know no bounds? Via Beltway Confidential:
A123 Systems, an electric car battery company once touted as a stimulus "success story" by former Gov. Jennifer Granhom, D-Mich., has laid off 125 employees since receiving $390 million in government subsidies -- but is still handing out big pay raises to company executives.
"[T]he company has laid off 125 employees and had a net loss of $172 million through the first three quarters of 2011," the Mackinac Center for Public Policy reports, observing that the company's primary customer, Fisker Automotive, is also struggling financially. "Yet, this month A123’s Compensation Committee approved a $30,000 raise for [Chief Financial Officer David] Prystash just days after Fisker Automotive announced the U.S. Energy Department had cut off what was left of its $528.7 million loan it had previously received." ...
"It looks like they are trying to pad their top people’s wallets in case something really bad happens," Paul Chesser, associate fellow for the National Legal & Policy Center, suggested.
The Department of Energy gave the battery company $249.1 million in grant money, while the Michigan government provided A123 with another $141 million in tax credits and subsidies, according to the Mackinac Center.
Both Fisker and A123 have been operating at losses and laying off workers, and their loan guarantees are finally coming under review -- might they have to start contending with that pesky free market instead of living like parasites off of government favoritism? There, but for the grace of government subsidies, go I...