GM bailout = enviro disaster, Volt = awesome
Some interesting questions swirl around GM.
When the current administration bailed it out and bought the good stuff, one of the pieces left to Motors Liquidation Company ("Old GM") were all of the toxic abandoned factories GM created over the years. They will cost about $2 billion to clean up, and with Old GM having about $1.5 billion for everything, not much is likely to end up in the ground.
Which leaves taxpayers - in this case local/state taxpayers - footing a bill that they cannot afford. In other words it is an environmental disaster.
On another front, GM announced that the Volt will get 230mpg city. Which is pretty damn impressive. But the number has a certain odor to it. The EPA devised a whole new methodology to give the Volt this number. Granted, it is the first car of its kind, and so the old test did not fairly represent the numbers, but this could have been said about the first Honda Insight (arguably a bigger step than the Volt), or the current crop of CRD diesels. And of course, GM is owned by the govt., a government that is very concerned about painting its recent purchase as "green" and "a good deal," and the very same government that gave the incredibly high rating to GM's latest and greatest car.
I love how the government has the audacity to legislate heavy handedly about conflicts of interest in the corporate world but then goes ahead and abuses its powers to help its ward.
Pawning off an environmental disaster, manipulating the market, and rampant hypocrisy seem all in a day's work these days.
When the current administration bailed it out and bought the good stuff, one of the pieces left to Motors Liquidation Company ("Old GM") were all of the toxic abandoned factories GM created over the years. They will cost about $2 billion to clean up, and with Old GM having about $1.5 billion for everything, not much is likely to end up in the ground.
Which leaves taxpayers - in this case local/state taxpayers - footing a bill that they cannot afford. In other words it is an environmental disaster.
On another front, GM announced that the Volt will get 230mpg city. Which is pretty damn impressive. But the number has a certain odor to it. The EPA devised a whole new methodology to give the Volt this number. Granted, it is the first car of its kind, and so the old test did not fairly represent the numbers, but this could have been said about the first Honda Insight (arguably a bigger step than the Volt), or the current crop of CRD diesels. And of course, GM is owned by the govt., a government that is very concerned about painting its recent purchase as "green" and "a good deal," and the very same government that gave the incredibly high rating to GM's latest and greatest car.
I love how the government has the audacity to legislate heavy handedly about conflicts of interest in the corporate world but then goes ahead and abuses its powers to help its ward.
Pawning off an environmental disaster, manipulating the market, and rampant hypocrisy seem all in a day's work these days.
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