Who said government never helped create a job? There's 3,000 of them at this Tesla plant.
Good news for those who believe government should invest in next-generation green technologies that won't just help preserve our environment, but will make America industry a leader in that effort:
In a boost for the Obama Administration and controversial federal cleantech programs, electric vehicle maker Tesla Motors (TSLA) announced Wednesday it paid back its $465 million government loan nine years early.
The U.S. Department of Energy oversees $34 billion in taxpayer-funded loans for 33 clean energy projects, and Tesla is the first American car company to pay back its loan. The DOE loans came under fierce criticism from Congressional Republicans in the wake of the high-profile 2011 bankruptcy of Fremont solar manufacturer Solyndra, with Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney calling Tesla a "loser" in a presidential debate last fall.
Republicans want to cede green tech to the Europeans and Chinese, but you'd think they'd at least be happy that the feds got their money back, with interest and other fees, from Tesla. But
nope.
“When they’re picking all these losers, it’s nice for them to have one where they can point to,” Representative Jim Jordan, an Ohio Republican who held a hearing last month on Fisker’s loan, said in an interview yesterday.
What did "picking" this "loser" get Americans, other than $12 million in interest-related profit? How about 3,000 jobs in California, hundreds more support jobs nationwide, and hints of a second assembly line
in Texas. It helped an American company develop the benchmark electric-vehicle technology now licensed to Mercedes-Benz and Toyota for forthcoming electric vehicles by those companies.
Republicans want companies receiving government loan guarantees to fail. Why else complain when they don't? And they'll scream loudly that the $12 million taxpayers made from this deal won't offset the hundreds of millions lost from the Solyandra bankruptcies, the impending Fisker collapse, and a handful of others.
But those losses are no more significant than any venture capitalist's portfolio of failed companies. The idea isn't to bat 1.000. It's to seed innovation and find the next big hit. For venture capitalists, it's the next Facebook. For the government, it's ensuring that America plays a role in the economy of the future, and there's no doubt that electric vehicles are the future. We've already ceded solar energy to the Chinese and Germans. No need to surrender on more economic fronts.
For Republicans obsessed with "running the government like a business," you'd think this would be obvious to them. But regardless, Tesla is a hit, and it's a hit precisely because the government had the foresight to invest in the future.
And the punchline? The loan programs was a Bush-era program. If nothing else, Republicans should be happy that Bush finally has a success to his name.