Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Law firm with ties to Democrats advised DOE on Fisker loan

BY:

A law firm with a history of donating to President Obama and other Democrats received lucrative stimulus grants to advise the Department of Energy on loans to automotive companies, including the struggling electric car manufacturer Fisker Automotive, the National Legal and Policy Center reports.

Fisker received a $529 million loan promise to produce two lines of plug-in hybrid cars. But the project has been plagued by delays, unmet goals, and lay-offs, as well as news that Fisker was using its federal loans to produce cars in Finland.

The National Legal and Policy Center writes:

The firm, Debevoise & Plimpton LLC, received $1,842,180 in Recovery Act funds to provide legal advice, conduct due diligence, and review documents for two loans from DOE’s Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program. One $529 million loan award was to Fisker Automotive to develop and produce two lines of electric vehicles, with plans to create 2,000 new jobs at a renovatedGeneral Motors plant in Delaware. After receiving $193 million under that loan, DOE halted payments to Fisker in May 2011 after it failed to reach milestones set out in the agreement. Work on renovations to the Delaware plant was suspended, and the company let go about 65 employees – “green jobs” – earlier this month. …

Read more: http://freebeacon.com/fisker-cronysim-redux/

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