By Paul Chesser

Taxpayer-backed “Green” investments are the flavor of the moment, whether they are renewables such as wind or solar companies – many of which are fledgling and therefore struggling, unless they are part of a larger corporation such as General Electric. And then there is the transportation sector and electric vehicles.

The need to create recharging infrastructure is perhaps an even bigger example of waste and inefficiency that the federal government – mostly through the Department of Energy – is “investing” in its electric vehicle experiment, whose centerpiece is the Chevy Volt. As with other Obama administration “Green” energy initiatives, billions of taxpayer dollars are pouring into that effort.

At least one recipient of massive government funds looks somewhat Solyndra-esque. San Francisco-based Ecotality was awarded two Department of Energy grants that totaled $115 million to install 14,000 of its Blink vehicle charges in 18 metropolitan areas around the country. Energy Secretary Steven Chu praised Ecotality subsidiary Electric Transportation Engineering Corporation (eTec, but now called Ecotality North America) at the Washington Auto Show in January 2010, at the same time he announced a $1.4 billion loan agreement with Nissan North America to retrofit its Smyrna, Tenn. plant to produce the Leaf.

Read the rest at the National Legal & Policy Center blog.