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Solyndra Redux: House Committee Schedules Hearing on Fisker
Green Technology Featured Articles
April 15, 2013

Solyndra Redux: House Committee Schedules Hearing on Fisker

By Cheryl Kaften
TMCnet Contributor

We knew it was coming; we just didn’t know how soon.

As Irvine, California-based Fisker Automotive edged closer to insolvency last week—facing an April 22 deadline to repay some of the $193 million it received from the Department of Energy’s Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program—we had a nagging feeling that the name, Solyndra, soon would resurface.


Solyndra was a Fresno, California-based solar manufacturer that received a $535-million Department of Energy (DOE) loan guarantee in March 2009, and was endorsed by President Barack Obama as an example of green job creation.

Then, it filed for bankruptcy in September 2011 and laid off 1,000 workers—becoming the focal point for Republican opposition to government investments in clean energy.

Meanwhile, nearly in lockstep in September 2009, Fisker Automotive received a $528.7-million loan guarantee from the DOE to manufacture its plug-in luxury sports sedan, the Karma (although, to date, Executive Chairman Henrik Fisker has received less than 50 percent  of the half-billion dollars allotted).

But things began to go bad for Fisker as early as December 2011, when the automaker was forced to recall 239 of its vehicles due to a battery defect.  Buyers became leery of the brand. Then, in July 2012, Waltham, Massachusetts-based A123 Systems—Fisker’s main supplier of lithium-ion batteries (and, itself, a DOE loan guarantee recipient)—sought bankruptcy protection and was purchased by the Hangzhou, China-based component manufacturer, Wanxiang Group, Inc.

Since July, Fisker has not manufactured cars and the company has looked unsuccessfully for suitors. In fact, most analysts say the final financial straw was a lack of interest from two potential Chinese buyers— Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, with headquarters in Hangzhou; and Dongfeng Motor Group Co., based in Wuhan.  

Fisker’s 210 employees were just finishing their first week back at work after being furloughed late in March, when the cash-strapped company unceremoniously fired all but 53 of them on April 5. Later that day, the California office of the employment law firm Outten & Golden filed a suit in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana, California, suggesting Fisker had failed to comply with the terms of the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN Act), as well as a comparable California law, which protect workers by requiring most employers with 100 or more employees to provide notification 60 calendar days in advance of plant closings and mass layoffs.

The suit is on behalf of former Fisker Chief Engineer Sven Etzelsberger, and seeks class-action status to represent all of those dismissed suddenly.

Now, the Republican-led House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee has scheduled a hearing for April 24 to look into Fisker Automotive. This is no surprise; As early as October 22, 2012, the committee sent out a press release declaring, “Oversight Seeks Information on Potential ‘Solyndra-Style’ Tax Write-Offs to Fisker Automotive.” 

 “The hearing will examine taxpayer support offered to Fisker Automotive, including the loan guarantee Fisker received from the U.S. Department of Energy,” according to the documents. 

Do we hear Solyndra?




Edited by Braden Becker


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