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And the tax payers get screwed again while the politicians get rich.
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Last year Metro—that's the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which runs bus and train service in most of Los Angeles County—promised to replace all 2,200 of its natural gas–powered buses with battery-powered vehicles by 2030. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti has pledged to purchase only zero-emission buses by 2025.
To achieve these ambitious goals, Metro and other city and county agencies have funneled $330 million in public contracts to BYD, a vehicle manufacturer based in China. An exhaustive Los Angeles Times investigation shows that taxpayers got very little in return for that money: The company produced buses that could not travel the advertised ranges, that stalled on the city's steep hills, that had doors that wouldn't close, and that required far more service calls than the buses they were designed to replace.
Take Mike Antonovich, a longtime Los Angeles County supervisor and the chairman of Metro's board, who did not disclose his ownership of BYD stock and who received some $13,500 in campaign contributions from the company while voting on initiatives that would directly benefit it, including a $30 million grant for new bus technology and a plan to convert the entire Metro fleet to electric vehicles. Antonovich reportedly helped secure a $9.45 million in incentives for BYD to establish a headquarters and manufacturing facility in Los Angeles County.
Also benefitting from BYD's largesse was Len Engel, transit manager for the Antelope Valley Transit Agency. Engel's agency awarded a $72 million contract to BYD to electrify its entire bus fleet in 2016. That same year, the company paid Engel's expenses for week-long trips to China and Ecuador and also hired his sister-in-law for an administrative post.
We need a better source than sites funded by the billionaire Koch brothers network like Reason.com which advocates private tyranny and hates democracy. After all, democracy is a threat to any system of power and the Koch brothers are at the top of the food chain.
We need a better source than sites funded by the billionaire Koch brothers network like Reason.com which advocates private tyranny and hates democracy. After all, democracy is a threat to any system of power and the Koch brothers are at the top of the food chain.
BYD Electric Buses Face Mechanical Problems in Southern California as Agencies Hand Them Contracts
Unbeknownst to the public, BYD's electric buses are contending with a record of poor performance and mechanical problems.
Stalls, stops and breakdowns: Problems plague push for electric buses
But largely unbeknownst to the public, BYD's electric buses are contending with a record of poor performance and mechanical problems.
A Times investigation found its buses stalled on hills, required service calls much more frequently than older buses and had unpredictable driving ranges below advertised distances, which were impaired by the heat, the cold or the way drivers braked.
We need a better source than sites funded by the billionaire Koch brothers network like Reason.com which advocates private tyranny and hates democracy. After all, democracy is a threat to any system of power and the Koch brothers are at the top of the food chain.
Reason loves democracy and never advocates tyranny.
BTW, if you did a little reading you would know that.
Maybe you hate democracy because you love big government and crony capitalsm.
Not for some posters. Some on this board love Big Government and Crony Capitalism and attack any source that exposes the sins of government.
Oh I know...
I used to live in NY... this is nothing new...
Hell, they used to air on the local news all of the state's corruption even providing receipts, dates, times, you name it!
Segment was called "You Paid For It"
If you or I conducted business with public funds, awarded to us, it would be our heads on pikes or we would be swinging from trees.
In NY politicians get away with whatever and it's even broadcast. Not a damn thing is done about it.
Oh that bridge they put in Amsterdam to walk on, went over budget by millions and beyond dealines. No big deal.
It adds a maintenance cost to be plowed and salted in the winter time too. Lest the state get sued for the slip and fall come winter time...
But ignore the potholes big enough to swallow a Buick coming off 87 entering Amsterdam LOL
Can't maintain what roads they have, yet they can maintain a new walking bridge... riiiggghhhtttt....
Who needs ball joints anyways...
the u.s. Does not have a capitalist, free-market economy.
Yes it does unless you are using pretend make believe definitions of capitalist or free market.
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