1. In order to improve their political performance, the governors of American States are showing their magic power to attract large-scale industrial projects with various preferences, from which Musk has benefited a lot.
2. On the solar panel project, New York State spent nearly $1 billion to build a factory and leased it to Tesla for $1 a year to produce solar products.
3. Eight years later, the factory has not fulfilled Musk's promise, producing solar panels to cover only 21 roofs a week, far below the goal of 1000.
4. The audit showed that of the investment in solar panel factories in New York State, the economic benefit of $1 was only 0. The external auditor wrote down the investment completely.
5. Even Musk himself admits that he has not focused on solar energy in the past few years. But given more time, he says, it's possible to make a big difference in solar. The US state of New York has spent nearly $1bn over the
past decade on Elon Musk's ambitious plans for a solar panel factory. As planned, the facility was supposed to be the largest solar panel plant in the Western Hemisphere and one of the largest public cash outlays of its kind ever. "You want to pinch yourself, don't you?" Andrew Cuomo,
New York's then-governor, said at the 2015 groundbreaking for the plant? Ccement. Com/richtext/IMG/indqshaneb1689040336603. The state funded the giant factory, which has more than 110,000 square meters of industrial space. The factory is owned by the state and leased to Tesla for $1 a year. In addition, New York State has purchased 2. Musk has said that by 2020, the factory in Buffalo will produce enough solar panels to cover 1000 roofs per week.
However, an analysis of grid data by energy analysts at Wood Mackenzie, an energy consultancy, found that Tesla's solar division, which is behind the plan, is covering just 21 roofs with solar panels on average each week. There are some workers in the factory building, but most of them are lower-paid data analysts who work on other Tesla businesses. The suppliers that
Cuomo predicted would flock to modern manufacturing centers never came. The only new shop in the neighborhood is Tim Horton's Coffee Shop. Most of the solar panel manufacturing equipment purchased by New York State has been sold at a discount or scrapped. An audit by the state comptroller found that a solar panel factory built on the site of an old steel mill brought in just 0. 1 for every dollar of subsidy. And outside auditors have written down almost all of New York's investment. "This is a bad deal," said Sen. Sean Ryan, a Democrat who
represents Buffalo. A lesson to be learned: You can't give governors too much power to get on the phone with egotistical billionaires.
But a spokesman for former Governor Cuomo defended the project, saying there are now more jobs at the plant site, which was previously just a vacant lot for the old steel plant. "Tesla makes a significant contribution to the local economy, consistent with the overall economic revitalization of the region," said Jason Conwall, a spokesman for the state agency overseeing the project.
Musk and Tesla did not respond to requests for comment, and Cuomo declined to be interviewed.
Governors scramble for big projects
America's governors have become embroiled in an arms race, using taxpayer money to support packages to attract big industrial projects. President Biden's federal subsidies for building American manufacturing, especially electric vehicle battery and semiconductor plants, have also played a huge role, some of which require States to introduce additional incentives.
Good Jobs First is a subsidy tracker, partly funded by unions. Last year, U.S. States provided more than $1 billion in tax breaks and other assistance to eight companies, the agency said. Until then, there had never been more than three such deals in a year.
In Wisconsin, a Foxconn factory that was supposed to employ people was almost empty. 1. Virginia suburbs offered huge tax subsidies to win the competition for Amazon's "second headquarters", but most of the project was shelved. Musk's electric vehicle maker Tesla and space transportation company SpaceX have received more than $4 billion in tax breaks and other government subsidies since 2006,
according to state and federal records. Among other things, Nevada has offered financial incentives, including this year's 3.
In Buffalo, the New York state government is spending money to build factories instead of offering years-long tax breaks. Governor Cuomo once called it the centerpiece of what he called the "Buffalo Billion Plan.". "In terms of direct costs to taxpayers, this may be the greatest economic development failure in American history," said E. J., a senior fellow at
the fiscally conservative Imperial Public Policy Center.
oversees the subsidies, said the agency has not recorded production at the Tesla plant, or at any other factory supported by the government.
Tesla's deal with the state of New York requires it to lease the factory for $1 a year until 2029. Once the engine of American manufacturing,
Buffalo remained stagnant for generations as industrial companies moved south. Previous rebuilding efforts have largely failed. In 2012, Mr. Cuomo said he wanted to use $1 billion in state taxpayer money to turn around Buffalo, while regional leaders commissioned the Brookings Institution, a think tank, to develop an investment strategy. The Buffalo solar panel factory plan was mentioned in a
2013 policy document, which centered on avoiding too much state aid to a few large companies. New York's avowed goal is to incubate a few small start-ups in promising parts of the economy.
Cuomo's adviser on the Buffalo project, SUNY nanoscience professor Alain Kaloyeros, recruited solar panel startup Silevo and LED lighting company Soraa to consolidate the planned high-tech hub. The state says it will spend $100 million to build Silevo's plant, and in exchange, the company will create 1,300 jobs.
When the deal was finalized, Kaloyeros learned that SolarCity, a leading solar panel installer in New York State, was considering buying Silevo. Musk is the chairman and largest investor in SolarCity, which is run by his cousins Lyndon and Peter Rive.
However, Musk and his cousins, without alerting Cuomo, wrote in a blog post that the Buffalo plant would produce enough panels to produce 1 gigawatt of electricity per year. That's the equivalent of more than 3 million solar panels, according to the Department of Energy. "We are in discussions with New York State to build our first manufacturing facility," Musk and others wrote. They vowed to start operating "one of the largest solar panel manufacturing plants in the world" within two years. Cuomo was angry about being upstaged by Musk,
according to communications records seen by the media.Kaloyeros told the governor's staff in an email that Musk "jumped the gun" in announcing the goal of producing 1 gigawatt of electricity. Mr. Kaloyeros assured the government that Mr. Cuomo would soon have his own message to deliver. "The actual deal being considered is much larger, with 5 GW to 10 GW of power generation and 5,000 jobs, and that's the governor's message,"
he wrote. Kaloyeros did not blame Musk for posting before Cuomo, but wrote, "I prefer to shame Musk and let him announce a larger deal with the governor as soon as possible." In September
2014, the state agreed to invest in solar projects. 7. But because SolarCity's project was so big, the state gave up Soraa, another former tenant in Buffalo, and promised to find a new home for it. Soraa has since left New York.
At a groundbreaking ceremony in August 2015, Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown said the new plant, called Riverbend, would soon produce 10,000 solar panels a day and create 3,000 jobs. In October of that year, SolarCity persuaded the state to remove the term "high-tech" from the employment agreement and reduce the number of jobs needed for "manufacturing operations" at the Buffalo plant from 900 to 500.
By the summer of 2016, SolarCity was about $3 billion in debt and barely had any cash. Tesla bought it. Multiple Tesla shareholders have filed a lawsuit accusing Musk of using the automaker to save another one of his businesses. A Delaware judge ruled in Musk's favor last year, citing the rise in Tesla's stock price as evidence that the SolarCity acquisition did not harm investors.
Musk's employees, as well as bankers who advised Tesla on the SolarCity deal, were caught off guard by his focus on solar roof tiles, which are in the early stages of design. "This is Musk's world, and we all live in it," one executive wrote in the face of the outrage. In April
2017, Cuomo secured another $500 million for the project, about half of which went to the Tesla factory, bringing New York's total investment in the factory to 9.
Production at the Buffalo plant has been brisk for several years, but it is run by Tesla's solar cell supplier, Panasonic. The Japanese company employed about 400 people in Buffalo until it decided to pull out in early 2020. In June
2019, Musk admitted in testimony in a shareholder lawsuit that he had not focused on solar energy for most of the past two years because Tesla was under pressure to mass-produce the long-delayed affordable electric vehicle Model 3. He said he has relocated all of his solar workers to Model 3 production jobs that are not being performed in Buffalo. "Just a little more time and we can focus on solar and you'll see a sea change," he said.
At present, the place that should be used to produce solar panels is mainly used to house Tesla's data analysts. Will Hance, a 24-year-old data analyst who has worked at Tesla's Buffalo plant since October, said, "To be honest, they need these jobs to avoid paying the fines associated with this deal.". In general, we're the biggest department there.
Hans is a member of the union under the United Tesla Workers, which is affiliated with the Service Employees International Union. Labor leaders have been wary of Musk's involvement from the start, given his company's history of opposing unions.
To prepare for the arrival of Tesla and the wave of solar manufacturing jobs, Buffalo has spent $44 million to build training centers on the city's economically backward East Side. In four years of operation, the center has trained about 500 people and sent about 20 people to work at Tesla, most of them equipment maintenance technicians, its executive director said.
Thirteen students have graduated from another solar manufacturing training program started by Buffalo Public Schools. A Tesla spokesman would not say how many of them were hired by Tesla. Tesla rarely mentions its solar production in disclosures to investors. Musk has not made any public appearances in Buffalo. Senator Liz Krueger,
a Democrat who chairs the Senate Finance Committee, said New York should invest in infrastructure and worker training instead of "spending billions of taxpayer yuan pretending we're very good at being angel investors.".
New York Senator Ryan last visited the Buffalo plant before the COVID-19 outbreak. He and another government official later said that what they saw at the time did not look like mass production of solar panels.
"We're still hoping to wake up tomorrow and hear that Tesla is really going to invest in this plant, and we're going to get the jobs and the economic benefits that we promised," Mr. Ryan said in a recent interview. "So everyone is reluctant to dance on Tesla's grave because we still want it to deliver."
Tesla's solar plant in Buffalo is also in legal trouble, and the relevant agencies are investigating it for corruption. Kaloyeros and several others, including a close aide to Cuomo, were convicted of rigging the bidding process to award construction contracts to a politically connected local contractor. However, the United States Supreme Court subsequently vacated his conviction.
浙公网安备33010802003254号