Subsidized California Electric Car Company Folds, Leaves City of Salinas on the Hook for $500,000

Hmm....who didn't see this coming?

A Salinas car manufacturing company that was expected to build environmentally friendly electric cars and create new jobs folded before almost any vehicles could run off the assembly line.

The city of Salinas had invested more than half a million dollars in Green Vehicles, an electric car start-up company.

All of that money is now gone, according to Green Vehicles President and Co-Founder Mike Ryan.

The start-up company set up shop in Salinas in the summer of 2009, after the city gave Ryan a $300,000 community development grant.

When the company still ran into financial trouble last year, the city of Salinas handed Ryan an additional $240,000. Green Vehicles also received $187,000 from the California Energy Commission.

Salinas Mayor Dennis Donohue said he was "surprised and disappointed" by the news. City officials were equally irked that Ryan notified them through an email that his company had crashed and burned.

I suppose I shouldn't laugh, but as the ruling party is attempting to shut down oil platforms, coal-fired power plants or natural gas drilling through regulatory fiat or executive orders, they continue doling out subsidies and grants for electric cars or 56 MPG vehicles all in the name of 'green jobs'.

And poorly thought-out ventures like Green Vehicles, heavily subsidized by governments in the name of 'going green', will continue to fall flat on their face as long as the ruling party assumes that they can pick winners and losers in the private sector.

[Hat tip: Labor Union Report; The Lonely Conservative]