The Chinese offered $450M for A123 Batteries two months ago - 3X the amount of their fed grants

[wtmusic]

but it seems dickheads like this opposed the deal:

"Republican House of Representative Cliff Stearns questioned the safety of the agreement, writing in a statement that, "It appears the Department of Energy and the Obama administration have failed to secure sensitive taxpayer funded intellectual property from being transferred to a foreign adversary, which raises serious national security issues. ... There is definitely a growing concern about foreign- controlled or owned companies attempting to gain a foothold into our supply chain in the United States. We need to make sure the Federal government isn't an unwitting accomplice to the theft of our own national secrets by providing them with multimillion-dollar government grants and loans."

The problem is not that we gave A123 Batteries too much money. We didn't give them enough, then drove them into bankruptcy by not allowing investment by a country that appreciated their value.

It had nothing to do with the company's research, their finances, their focus. It had to do with blatant partisan obstructionism, timed for the election to boot. Yay Free Market!

http://green.autoblog.com/2012/08/09/a123-systems-brings-in-chinese-investor-to-calm-the-waters/

[tinrobot]

1. I would like to keep A123 in the US

Selling some of our best technology to the highest foreign bidder does not serve our future well.

[wtmusic]

2. Agree

but if China thinks they're worth $450M, maybe we should be doing more to keep them here - and solvent.

[tinrobot]

3. true