You might remember that in October 2021, Governor Bill Lee called for a special session of the General Assembly to make way for Tennessee’s largest-ever tax incentive program which amounted to almost $1 BILLION carved out for the Ford Motor Company. The promise, of course, was job creation. In Tennessee, we take your tax dollars and give your money to corporations of the government’s choosing and then call that economic growth.
Well, the saga continues.
The US Department of Energy (USDOE) announced on Thursday that it is conditionally extending a loan of up to $9.2 billion to Ford Motor Company. This massive sum, which is the most substantial single federal investment in the automotive industry, is set to support the construction of Ford’s Blue Oval SK manufacturing plants in Tennessee and Kentucky. The loan comes as a part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s push to increase domestic electric vehicle production and reduce the nation’s carbon emissions.
The Blue Oval City facility, a sprawling six-acre site under construction near Memphis in Haywood County, Tennessee, will produce Ford’s all-electric F-150 Lightning pickup and EV battery components for Ford and Lincoln vehicles. The venture is a partnership between Ford and South Korean battery maker SK Innovation. The battery plant within Blue Oval City will have the capacity to produce more than 40 gigawatts of power annually.
Ford’s move towards EVs comes in line with the Biden-Harris Administration’s goal of having electric vehicles represent at least 50% of all new car sales in the US by 2030. The administration also aims to achieve net-zero electricity by 2035 and a net-zero economy by 2050. The proposed loan, however, remains conditional and hinges on Blue Oval SK’s ability to meet several critical milestones and certain conditions.
The loan corresponds with the Inflation Reduction Act, passed in 2022, which designated $370 billion for clean-energy projects and offered consumer tax credits for electric vehicle buyers, granting tax rebates of up to $7,500 per vehicle.
The $9.2 billion loan, if taken in full, would significantly exceed the total of $8 billion lent under the USDOE’s Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program since its authorization in 2007. It also dwarfs the $465 million government grant given to Tesla for its first factory in 2010 under the Obama administration.
The loan is not yet set in stone. Ford and its partner SK Innovations must first meet certain requirements stipulated by the USDOE. These conditions remain undisclosed.
Which introduces the concern we should always have regarding this continued practice of corporate welfare and government interference in what should be free market affairs. The public is being artificially pushed into a product that so far it does not want and has proven to carry a price tag exceeding the budget of what most Americans can afford. Yet, governments continue to subsidize the push to EVs and they are using our own money against us.
The major concern is the continued entanglement of the federal government in the everyday affairs of the individual. I will elaborate.
Much of the policies we struggle with (i.e. medical freedom, child welfare, education) stem from the state’s inability (or unwillingness) to legislate is such a way that would provide a strong defense of individual liberty because of its entanglement with federal money. For the 2022 fiscal year, roughly 40% of the state Tennessee’s budget came from federal dollars. And it is important to recognize that much of that federal money comes with strings attached, performance requirements set forth by the federal government in order to qualify for those needed dollars.
But the issue gets even more convoluted whenever federal money is now also entangled with corporate entities. These corporations create jobs and therefore become a meaningful part of our state’s economy, yet their performance is now also tied to federal dollars and therefore requirements from the federal government.
Case in point, consider the special session that was held by the Tennessee General Assembly in 2021 to pass legislation protecting employees from unconstitutional COVID mandates. Remember that while the state passed a law restricting employers from conditioning employment by coercion to take a vaccine, healthcare workers and federal contractors were exempted from these protections due to the risk of losing federal funding via contracts and requirements for Medicare and Medicaid. The liberty of Tennesseans to make their own healthcare decision became subject to federal money.
And unfortunately, history is going to continue to repeat itself.
Corporate welfare always begets more corporate welfare, ultimately at the expense of your liberty.
You might remember that in October 2021, Governor Bill Lee called for a special session of the General Assembly to make way for Tennessee’s largest-ever tax incentive program which amounted to almost $1 BILLION carved out for the Ford Motor Company. The promise, of course, was job creation. In Tennessee, we take your tax dollars and give your money to corporations of the government’s choosing and then call that economic growth.
Well, the saga continues.
The US Department of Energy (USDOE) announced on Thursday that it is conditionally extending a loan of up to $9.2 billion to Ford Motor Company. This massive sum, which is the most substantial single federal investment in the automotive industry, is set to support the construction of Ford’s Blue Oval SK manufacturing plants in Tennessee and Kentucky. The loan comes as a part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s push to increase domestic electric vehicle production and reduce the nation’s carbon emissions.
The Blue Oval City facility, a sprawling six-acre site under construction near Memphis in Haywood County, Tennessee, will produce Ford’s all-electric F-150 Lightning pickup and EV battery components for Ford and Lincoln vehicles. The venture is a partnership between Ford and South Korean battery maker SK Innovation. The battery plant within Blue Oval City will have the capacity to produce more than 40 gigawatts of power annually.
Ford’s move towards EVs comes in line with the Biden-Harris Administration’s goal of having electric vehicles represent at least 50% of all new car sales in the US by 2030. The administration also aims to achieve net-zero electricity by 2035 and a net-zero economy by 2050. The proposed loan, however, remains conditional and hinges on Blue Oval SK’s ability to meet several critical milestones and certain conditions.
The loan corresponds with the Inflation Reduction Act, passed in 2022, which designated $370 billion for clean-energy projects and offered consumer tax credits for electric vehicle buyers, granting tax rebates of up to $7,500 per vehicle.
The $9.2 billion loan, if taken in full, would significantly exceed the total of $8 billion lent under the USDOE’s Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program since its authorization in 2007. It also dwarfs the $465 million government grant given to Tesla for its first factory in 2010 under the Obama administration.
The loan is not yet set in stone. Ford and its partner SK Innovations must first meet certain requirements stipulated by the USDOE. These conditions remain undisclosed.
Which introduces the concern we should always have regarding this continued practice of corporate welfare and government interference in what should be free market affairs. The public is being artificially pushed into a product that so far it does not want and has proven to carry a price tag exceeding the budget of what most Americans can afford. Yet, governments continue to subsidize the push to EVs and they are using our own money against us.
The major concern is the continued entanglement of the federal government in the everyday affairs of the individual. I will elaborate.
Much of the policies we struggle with (i.e. medical freedom, child welfare, education) stem from the state’s inability (or unwillingness) to legislate is such a way that would provide a strong defense of individual liberty because of its entanglement with federal money. For the 2022 fiscal year, roughly 40% of the state Tennessee’s budget came from federal dollars. And it is important to recognize that much of that federal money comes with strings attached, performance requirements set forth by the federal government in order to qualify for those needed dollars.
But the issue gets even more convoluted whenever federal money is now also entangled with corporate entities. These corporations create jobs and therefore become a meaningful part of our state’s economy, yet their performance is now also tied to federal dollars and therefore requirements from the federal government.
Case in point, consider the special session that was held by the Tennessee General Assembly in 2021 to pass legislation protecting employees from unconstitutional COVID mandates. Remember that while the state passed a law restricting employers from conditioning employment by coercion to take a vaccine, healthcare workers and federal contractors were exempted from these protections due to the risk of losing federal funding via contracts and requirements for Medicare and Medicaid. The liberty of Tennesseans to make their own healthcare decision became subject to federal money.
And unfortunately, history is going to continue to repeat itself.
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Gary Humble
Gary Humble