{"id":412920,"date":"2025-11-12T11:17:06","date_gmt":"2025-11-12T10:17:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=412920"},"modified":"2025-11-12T11:17:06","modified_gmt":"2025-11-12T10:17:06","slug":"waste-of-the-day-michigans-chinese-battery-plant-falls-through","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=412920","title":{"rendered":"Waste of the Day: Michigan\u2019s Chinese Battery Plant Falls Through"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"A<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Watts Up With That?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Jeremy Portnoy<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Topline: <\/strong>Michigan\u2019s plan to rely on a Chinese company to create American jobs is dead in the water. The state pulled out<\/a> of an agreement to give Gotion, Inc., $715 million in subsidies for an electric vehicle battery plant, but there\u2019s no guarantee Michigan will recoup the $23.6 million that was already paid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Key facts: <\/strong>Michigan agreed in 2022 to give Gotion up to $175 million in grants and $540 million in tax breaks to help fund the $2.4 billion plant<\/a>. It was projected to create 2,350 jobs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Progress was slow and opposition came quickly. Then-Senator Marco Rubio and other top congressional Republicans raised concerns<\/a>, claiming that the company\u2019s founder and top shareholders had ties to the Chinese Communist Party. Local voters in Green Charter Township recalled the officials who approved the plan and replaced them with new ones who sued Gotion to try and stop the plant.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Graphic<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Waste of the Day 11.7.25<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Open the Books<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Sept. 17 this year, the state privately told Gotion that it was in violation of the grant agreement because Gotion had made no construction progress in 120 days. The state claimed Gotion \u201cabandoned\u201d the project and had 30 days to resume its work. A response letter from the company\u2019s attorneys said that was \u201cutterly false\u201d and local opposition \u201cdue solely to racist and ethnically charged stereotypes\u201d was causing the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Local media did not yet know about the dispute, and in early October, the state told the news outlet Bridge Michigan<\/a> that the battery plant was still on track to be successful \u2014 a claim that now seems to be a lie. Michigan publicly announced on Oct. 23 that it was pulling out of the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Michigan Economic Development Corporation said it will try to claw back the $23.6 million it gave Gotion to buy land, but no specific plan has been released. No other public money was dispersed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Search all federal, state and local salaries and vendor spending with the world\u2019s largest government spending database at <\/em>OpenTheBooks.com<\/em><\/a>. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Critical quotes: <\/strong>Rich Studley, former president of the Michigan Chamber of Commerce, told Bridge Michigan he has \u201czero confidence\u201d the $23.6 million will be returned to taxpayers. State Rep. Tom Kunse, who represents Green Charter Township, said, \u201cThis is yet another example of why corporate welfare doesn\u2019t work. Taxpayer funded incentive deals often fail to deliver on promises, leaving our communities with broken commitments and wasted public dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Summary: <\/strong>Even well-planned corporate tax breaks are of questionable benefit to taxpayers, but public funds should not be handed out to companies that cannot deliver on their promises.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The #WasteOfTheDay is brought to you by the forensic auditors at OpenTheBooks.com<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article was originally published by RealClearInvestigations and made available via RealClearWire.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Topline: Michigan\u2019s plan to rely on a Chinese company to create American jobs is dead in the water. The state pulled out of an agreement to give Gotion, Inc., $715 million in subsidies for an electric vehicle battery plant, but there\u2019s no guarantee Michigan will recoup the $23.6 million that was already paid.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":412925,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"Michigan pulls out of a $715M deal with Gotion, exposing the risks of corporate welfare and tax breaks in failed projects.","jetpack_seo_html_title":"Michigan's Chinese Battery Plant Project Fails: $23.6M Loss","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"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.ocYAXtEwn3aq6Ast4Qx87GQKTICSGqReoY9QOsOtGQgMQ"},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691839621,691818862,691839622,691825552],"class_list":{"0":"post-412920","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-chinese-battery-plant","9":"tag-chinese-communist-party","10":"tag-green-charter-township","11":"tag-michigan","13":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/AQN1sReRRavT7mMbdStKV9X1msdhAD6C9Te2fwZZbnsuROfxOA9carvlTABKxI_v6kmXAWwYj2XUK9InmmCI79_Kg87djETJa3QumY4ESHZZPh6V9pt__IHIsxZGU_r1dElAtlutlTWo-UAAP_vIYxqwcbI5-A.jpeg?fit=1280%2C1280&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1Jq0","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":209441,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=209441","url_meta":{"origin":412920,"position":0},"title":"Biden family connections to U.S.-China energy deals reveal compromising coincidences","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"20\/07\/2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Here\u2019s a head scratcher. 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