Near Chapter 11 Bankruptcy: $249 Million in Taxpayer Dollars Given to Battery Maker is Gone

Denver Post — The country's advanced battery makers waited years — in some cases, decades — for the day electric vehicles would go mainstream. Yet now, even as cars such as the Nissan Leaf and the Chevrolet Volt are becoming recognizable brands, two of the country's top lithium-ion battery makers are teetering on the brink of insolvency.
Austin-based Valence Technology Inc. tipped over the edge Thursday with the announcement that it had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and was negotiating a new source of funding that would boost its working capital and allow it to continue operating.
The battery maker's announcement came less than a week after Massachusetts-based A123 Systems Inc. told investors that it had about five months of cash remaining for its operations and would move to raise more funding in the interim.
A123 had raised $378 million through an initial public offering in 2009. The following year, it hauled in a $249 million grant from the Obama administration. Five months from now, who knows? A123 said it was raising $39 million to handle its pending cash crunch, but the company could still join Solyndra, the now-defunct Silicon Valley solar technology company, on a scrap-heap of government-subsidized green-tech bankruptcies.
If Valence's 23 years of experience and the size of the plug-in electric car market offer a sign of what's to come, both U.S. battery makers will need a lot more cash and time before their income can support their expenses. Read full story here: News New Mexico
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Chasey in Denial About Voter Fraud

Gail Chasey
In the shadow of very disturbing recent voter fraud charges filed against multiple individuals including a librarian after the recent Sunland Park mayoral elections, a state representative remains in denial about voter fraud.
There have also been widespread reports that are well-documented in Virginia that have exposed efforts by progressives to create the conditions that lead to voter fraud there.
Still, Albuquerque's house member Gail Chasey took it upon herself to call the voter fraud problem a "myth." In a press release yesterday Chasey targeted Secretary of State Dianna Duran for simply cleaning up the voter rolls in New Mexico and thus making it more difficult for people in the country illegally to vote. Duran's efforts will also make it more difficult for others to vote for people who moved out of New Mexico years ago.
Chasey is one of several Democrats in the legislature who has consistently blocked all bi-partisan efforts to repeal a law that allows the issuance of driver's licenses to people living in the state illegally. She has also consistently stalled efforts that would require all voters to simply produce a picture identification when they vote, just as all citizens do when they fly, cash a check, use a credit card or do countless other tasks each day. In doing so Chasey has chosen to ignore here responsibility to protect all legitimate votes cast in her district and in the state.

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Sierra Club Efforts to Kill "Lower" Keystone Fail

Free Beacon - A federal judge denied the Sierra Club’s request for a temporary injunction to halt construction of the lower half of the Keystone XL Pipeline Sunday.
The environmental advocacy group recently filed a lawsuit to halt construction of the lower leg of the TransCanada corporation’s contested Keystone XL oil pipeline, the whole of which would run from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico, traversing eight states along the way.
“While acknowledging the limited time it had to consider this complex case, the court is satisfied that plaintiffs have failed to show that this project will have more than a minimal impact on the environment,” the judge in the case ruled.
Representative Jeff Landry
The Sierra Club filed the lawsuit against the Army Corps of Engineers, claiming it failed to hold required hearings regarding more than a thousand water crossings along the proposed 485-mile crude oil pipeline that would run from Cushing, OK, to Port Arthur, TX.
Rep. Jeff Landry (R, La.), a former small business owner in the oil and gas industry who held a “Drilling = Jobs” sign during President Obama’s national address on jobs, panned the lawsuit.
“Every dollar spent by Sierra Club on this lawsuit is another roadblock to the creation of tens of thousands of jobs in our country and the building of an independent, energy infrastructure,” Landry said in a statement to the Free Beacon. “And every minute that passes in delaying this project puts foreign countries like China closer to capitalizing on North American energy resources. The delays need to end and the construction needs to start!” Read full story here: News New Mexico

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