Thursday, June 23, 2011

Green cars a Hoosier brownout: bankruptcy in Elkhart

The Great Recession hit recreational vehicle manufacturing hub Elhart, Indiana hard. Two years ago the city suffered with the nation's highest unemployment rate. President Obama hawked his since-failed economic stimulus plan in the northern Indiana town--it was his first trip outside Washington after his inauguration. Six months later he visited nearby Wakarusa, touting a $39 million grant to develop advanced-electric cars. "We've got to imagine a future in which new American cars are powered by new American innovation," Obama said at a Navistar plant. Presumably, Obama's vision of transformational changes does not include RVs.

I don't know if THINK Global of Norway received any of that cash, but the firm, which opened a factory in Elkhart in December, just filed for bankruptcy.

Last fall Britain's liberal Guardian newspaper published a story entitled "Indiana still awaits Obama's promised green recovery."

Hope and change, baby!

Related posts:

Obama's "laser-focus" on jobs gazing upon dead batteries?

Half of Obama's touted battery grants going overseas

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