By: Mark Glennon*
Presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy slammed plans for Gotion’s electric vehicle lithium battery plants in Illinois and Michigan at a Wednesday rally near the Michigan proposed site. Gotion, which is Chinese owned, is set to receive about $8 billion in taxpayer subsidies for its Manteno plant, which will cost only $2 billion to build, and the company has clear ties to the Chinese Communist Party.
“The top objective of the next U.S. president has to be to declare independence from communist China. That is the Declaration of Independence of our century. We cannot depend on our enemy, for our modern way of life and the shoes on our feet to the phones in our pockets,” he said.
Gotion’s Michigan plans are nearly identical to its plans for Manteno, Illinois. “We’re not going to let it happen [in Illinois] just like we’re not going to let it happen here,” Ramaswamy said to the Michigan crowd.
Those facts have ignited a firestorm of controversy in Michigan and Manteno. I can attest to the deep anger of Manteno opponents, which was on full display at a Monday press conference and rally there. Opponents are livid, and the town seems overwhelmingly opposed. The plant is to be manned by American workers, but at least some Chinese nationals from Gotion undoubtedly will be there to oversee construction and management, and they will surely see the intense opposition to their project.
Illinois Gotion opponents have a new website here.
The national press is at least beginning to focus on the controversy. Reuters, News Nation and Fox have covered it, as did the New York Times twice this month. The Michigan press has multiple stories almost daily on the controversy there. Major Illinois media, however, have almost entirely blacked out the story, the only exceptions being outrageously distorted columns by Greg Hinz and Rich Miller, and a retort to the Hinz column by a former U.S. ambassador opposed to the Gotion projects.
Gotion supporters are dismissing criticism as a new form of McCarthyism, xenophobia or Red Scare, which is absurd because the Biden Administration and top Democrats have become among the most hawkish in calling for more tighter restrictions on Chinese business activity in the U.S.
The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that China is becoming a “no-go” zone for American businessmen because they fear they will be imprisoned there. Yet America is proceeding merrily along with subsidies for Chinese E.V. and battery investments in the U.S. – subsidies that far exceed project costs.
It’s not just Gotion projects getting those fat, federal subsidies. For example, Panasonic is poised to get as much as $6.8 billion for a Kansas E.V. battery plant that will cost just $4 billion. Many such projects are underway that are similarly subsidized.
That’s rank stupidity.
Among other consequences, a frenzy of new E.V. batter factories have been announced, which will likely lead to a battery glut.
Environmental issues are still emerging for Gotion and other battery projects, which has made the opposition in Michigan bipartisan. The same environmental questions should be asked here in Illinois:
- Does Manteno really have capacity to deliver 500,000 gallons of water per day, which is what the Michigan project is expected to consume?
- Where will the wastewater go and what will be in it?
- Will the local fire department be prepared for special firefighting needed for particularly hot lithium fires and noxious fumes that are released?
- Where is all the concern about “ESG investing” (environmental, social and governance) to which Illinois claims to be dedicated? That question was raised this week about the Kansas plant.
And there’s a major question about energy consumption yet to be addressed for the Manteno plant. The Kansas plant is expected to consume as much electricity as an entire coal-fired power plant, one of which will be kept open to serve the battery project, which will drive up rates for all consumers. More electricity rate hikes is the last thing Illinoisans need.
Wirepoints is collecting all relevant articles here. The Gotion controversy deepens every day.
*Mark Glennon is founder of Wirepoints.
Audio and summary 
If this bill passes, say goodbye to local control over all Illinois parks and expect to see open drug and alcohol use, needles, no sanitation and fire hazards, but no ordinary park users.
What a pathetic specimen of an elected official.
Not a very green project.
Not a safe project.
Not something the community wants.
No consideration of damages to our future environment and generations.
Only purpose seems to be that of stoking his ego and national image.
Has he considered having a similar facility next to his Wisconsin or Florida residences?
Ah wait for it, anyone asking these questions will be accused of being a radical, extremist etc.
What ever happened to legitimate discussion and debate in the public forum?
Her moniker is Wretchen Nitwit!
Folks, as an ex-Detroiter it’s none of the above.
Illinois municipalities are typically held to law, Open Meetings Act, by which elected officials must be presented evidence by local citizens about a rezoning’s impact to the community. This would importantly include impact of massive groundwater use on local property values.
It appears Manteno citizens are not to be even given the semblance of a fair trial before their hanging.
Illegally stored lithium batteries fire in Morris about 2 years ago. At least three days to put out after many options considered. Surrounding neighborhoods evacuated. Discuss.
No Presidental election winner here. His winning would mean this country would still not be blue, but CHINA RED. Think about how the enemy will break into your home to shoot you DEAD and no one will stop them. Hell, it already happens. You definitely have a death wish if you vote for Pritzker. And no, no matter how much they tell you they will monitor the situation, it won’t happen until after many have died. Remember, this is Illinois.
That pic says so much – and not in a good way.
Illinois, my former home state which I proudly called home 10 years ago, look what has become of you. You no longer know right from wrong. You reject reason, common sense, and truth. You turn a blind eye to corruption and embrace perversions. You exist in the greatest country the world has ever seen, yet you rebel against the values it is built upon. God gave you fresh water, good soil, and peaceful neighbors, yet do you thank him or complain? What fools you are.
People might like to better understand how groundwater and aquifers drilling and pumps work before enabling a company which may likely block access to monitor internal practices, including water pumping as well as the reverse: storage underground of unwanted surface materials.
Here is a nice easy presentation under 15 minutes titled “How Wells and Aquifers Actually Work”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bG19b06NG_w
When will the governor begin regretting his hasty decision to embrace Gotion? And who among his staff will he blame to distance himself when the heat is too much? Until then, when will the Illinois press arise from hibernation on this topic?
In order: Never. Someone he can quietly shuffle into another position with a generous pay raise. Never.