Hitching a ride on the gravy train

By the way, you and I supplied both the gravy and the tracks for the train.

Obama appointee subsidizes electric bus company, then goes to work for it

President Obama’s Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood has left the administration and joined the board of an electric bus company he subsidized and praised while in office.

Proterra Inc. makes buses that require no gasoline or diesel – they run on electricity and fuel cells.

You can see why electric buses would appeal to cities that want to clean the air and reduce fuel usage: City buses run a predictable number of miles a day, averting worries about dead batteries. Also, a fleet of buses creates economies of scale that can make recharging infrastructure economical.

…..

On Feb. 18, Proterra announced that LaHood, who left DOT last year, was joining the company’s board of directors. “LaHood’s government experience and leadership in transportation policy innovation make him an excellent fit for Proterra,” the company said in a news release. He will be paid not in cash but in stock in 2018 if the company successfully goes public, according to a spokesman for LaHood.

Proterra wrote: “During his time as secretary, LaHood was an avid supporter of EV transit, leading the Federal Transit Administration’s Clean Fuels Program, which was used to help fund the purchase of EV buses by several cities across the country.”

So LaHood used his power as a top government official to give taxpayer money to Proterra. Now he stands to personally benefit if the company succeeds.

A DOT spokesman also did not respond to my request for comment by press time.

Would that be considered a “job created” or a “job saved” in ObamaSpeak?