Yesterday the Governor’s Spokesperson, Jay Blanton, assured me that I was wholly mistaken in thinking that Governor Steve Beshear had assured Kentuckians that we were, 100% for certain, building a battery manufacturing plant in Kentucky. Read all about it, along with Blanton’s comments, by clicking here.
But after reading through dozens of press releases and checking out several official videos from the Governor’s office, we still believe we’re correct. Governor Steve Beshear and his office have said as much. We’re not delusional.
For instance, check this video of Steve Beshear at a recent press conference:
He says, “Kentucky has won a fierce competition for a proposed domestic battery facility and headquarters.” That’s about 29 seconds into the footage. Then at the 2:30 mark of the video, he reaffirms that the battery facility will be in Kentucky. “With the research facility I announced last week and not this manufacturing facility, Kentucky will move to the forefront of the U.S. effort to catch up and re-take the lead in what I call clean car technology.” Then at the 2:57 mark, “Kentucky was selected over seven states, seven other states, for this manufacturing facility and it was selected by the National Alliance for Advanced Transportation Batteries…”
At 4:15, Beshear says, “NAATBATT has chosen Hardin County’s 1,511-acre Glendale site as the home for this facility.”
So, if the project has not been awarded, as Jay Blanton says, why did Beshear make these statements?
See the video and read the rest of this head-scratcher after the jump…
There’s no way to spin Kentucky out of this misrepresentation. And now you know why we feel like this is ZAP! all over again.
In part two of the Beshear press conference video, at the 39-second mark:
Beshear says, “NAATBATT is in a competitive applications process for federal stimulus dollars for this facility and the size of the federal government’s ultimate commitment will determine the size of the facility.” By saying the size will be determined by federal dollars, Governor Beshear is again saying that the battery manufacturing facility is coming to Kentucky. Big or small, it’s coming. There’s no more transcription needed.
To further prove my point that the Governor’s office was jumping the shark, take a look at this screengrab of the Governor’s YouTube channel video description. The highlighted portion of text, as you’ll see below, plainly says, “Gov. Beshear announced that Kentucky has been selected as the site for a proposed domestic battery manufacturing and headquarters facility which would bring investment and jobs.”
There you have it. The Governor’s office may have tried to spin us yesterday. But it’s pretty clear that the shark was jumped. We’re all for bringing new business to Kentucky. And we’d love it if the Governor, for a change, actually focused on businesses that already exist in Kentucky. But what we don’t like is being lied to or misled.
15 responses so far ↓
1 TJ // Apr 17, 2009 at 10:57 am
Wow, Jake. I thought you were smarter than this.
NAATBATT chose KY over other states. Now NAATBATT must compete for stimulus dollars.
There are two rounds of competition here. We won the first round, and we are very competitive to win the second, b/c of the UK, UofL and Arbonne partnership, among other reasons.
2 jake // Apr 17, 2009 at 11:01 am
I get that.
But my point, again, is that the Governor’s office is leading the general public to believe that the battery plant WILL be built here. It’s difficult to believe otherwise after reading everything and watching everything released from Beshear’s office.
3 kentondem1 // Apr 17, 2009 at 11:36 am
I hope the Governor is not using the same tactics he did on the un-employment insurance, that was a disaster.
4 jake // Apr 17, 2009 at 11:39 am
I really don’t dislike this governor and don’t want to continually harp on him. But it’s tough when we’re fed nothing but spin, when he never takes a risk and when he continually dicks people over like it’s no big deal.
5 Marko // Apr 17, 2009 at 11:41 am
I agree with Jake — from all the gov’s statements and the hoopla the other day about it being built on the state’s Hardin Co. land, I thought it was a done deal too.
6 jay blanton // Apr 17, 2009 at 8:43 pm
Jake, I very much respect what you do with this site in providing insight and commentary on the issues but I sincerely believe you are being unfair to the administration on this issue.
What I told you yesterday is true. We won the federal lab — a presence from Argonne.
We won the competition that a large consortium of companies — NAATBatt — held among several states for where they want to place a “proposed” (clearly stated in the headline and news release) facility. They want to put it in Hardin County and if we are successful it represents a huge economic development initiative for this state. Watch the whole news conference — we talk repeatedly and are asked about the need to compete for and receive federal stimulus dollars. One of the participants says that need for dollars is Plan A and Plan b isn’t pretty. It’s stated clearly. The Hardin County officials — the mayor, the judge, the industrial foundation — are all there.
We also state clearly, if you will take the time to watch the whole thing, that we have a proposal that must be forwarded to the feds by May 19th.
The feds have put $2 billion toward battery projects. The Wall St. Journal has lauded our partner. The Austin American Statesman talks about how Texas was one of the states that competed with us to win the partnership with NAATBatt.
We are confident because of our strategy and our partner. But there are no guarantees.
None of that guarantees that we win. It will be very competitive and I’m sure Michigan will put forward a very competitive proposal. But if you read the Herald stories very closely, all of the folks (experts) lauding Michigan and questioning Kentucky are Michigan based automotive folks. I don’t think it’s particularly surprising that they would laud Michigan over Kentucky, particularly when one of the spokespeople quoted in the first story receives money from the state and has been appointed to be an economic advisor, in effect, to the governor of Michigan.
Again, that’s not disrespecting Michigan. They will be very aggressive. They may, indeed, be successful. But that doesn’t preclude our success. Multiple proposals could be funded or not. It is, after all, a competitive process.
As always, I appreciate your consideration and hope you will concede that I’ve been nothing but candid and balanced with you in our dialogue and, I would submit, if you read the releases and the stories you will see that we are confident and very positive, but also cognizant of the fact that we have won a couple of important rounds in this competitive battle, but still must win the money from the federal stimulus.
I don’t see where what we’ve done in making a big deal about this is any different from what Michigan has done and is doing by touting their incentives and plans.
7 jake // Apr 17, 2009 at 10:15 pm
Jay – Again, I refer you to a more recent post on the matter that raises even more questions.
I’m definitely not being unfair just because I won’t swallow two different sets of talking points.
Your camp needs to get it’s talking points in line before rolling out anything else. Make sure there’s no confusion. Don’t allow things to be taken out of context. And more importantly, don’t lead people to believe that this is a done deal while at the same time saying it’s not.
That is CLEARLY happening. There are people– in government– who think it’s a done deal.
Thanks again for commenting.
8 jake // Apr 17, 2009 at 10:21 pm
P.S. Hebert & others on Comment on Kentucky just pointed out how misleading your talking points have been. So don’t give me grief for being unfair.
Both on the number of jobs, the amount of batteries needed, the amount of financing needed, etc. Not to mention how misleading it’s been about whether or not both parts of this deal are done deals.
There’s no doubt that this is a big deal for Kentucky and COULD be an even bigger deal. It could be a great legacy for the Governor.
But, really, get the talking points in gear so people like me aren’t forced to point out irregularities galore. That’ll prevent egg on the face if this turns out to be a massive failure– which it very well may/could.
9 Thunder Storm // Apr 17, 2009 at 10:57 pm
Jay Blanton – I have watched both press releases and WHAS news story numerous times. If you would step out of your PIO shoes and step into Joe Citizens shows and look at this objectively, there is no way this cannot be construed as Governor Beshear announcing we have won the Lithium Ion batter facility. The Governor barely mentions the Argonne facility and talks at length about winning the battery facility competition.
I have spoken with many of my friends and they also thought we won the facility, No one, not a single person thought we were in competition with 7 other states.
But with that said, what are we as a Comonwealth doing to prepare for the inevitable carbon tax or cap and trade?
Today with the EPA announcing CO2 as a pollutant and Kentucky getting 92% of its electricity from coal, what is our plan to keep our low electricity rates low? I’ve read reports that say the coal states could see their electric rates, double, triple or more.
We are a poor state and our biggest lure to manufacturing facilities is our low energy costs. How many people will go broke paying these inevitable high energy costs?
Something more than talking or studying needs to be done. Our limestone geography will not permit Kentucky to sequester CO2 underground. Too many cracks is the substrate. We need to bring in the artificial “trees” that suck up CO2. Being the 14th windiest state, we need to put wind generators all over the mountains. We need to plant fast growing trees, we need Algae farms all over the place. We have more waterways than any state, lets add hydroelectric to our energy generating portfolio. Pikeville announced the will be making ethanol from trash.
Why are we not building solar panels in Kentucky or Windmills? Is California the only place these things can be constructed?
I understand all these things are small energy generators in the grand scheme of things but added together they add up to substantial amounts of energy. AND JOBS.
10 jay blanton // Apr 18, 2009 at 11:31 am
Jake, read hebert’s own post from the day we made the announcement. He got it. And I watched Comment last night, while i admit it’s a fierce competition and while I admit that there has been some confusion that perhaps as the PIO i can take blame for, that’s an entirely different thing from saying we jumped the shark. you are implying that we have been dishonest in a purposeful way. That is simply untrue — factually and otherwise. and if you read the coverage from the day of the event, where people clearly recognized we were talking about a proposal that we would have to win from the DOE, then you would acknowledge that as well.
here’s the post:
Battery Makers May Build Plant In Hardin County
6:31 PM Mon, Apr 13, 2009 | Permalink
Mark Hebert
A consortium of U.S. companies want to build a $600 million dollar plant and headquarters in Hardin County. The group wants to build lithium ion batteries for hybrid and electric cars. Governor Beshear says it could be as important to Kentucky’s future economy as Toyota’s announcement in 1986 that it was building a new car plant in Kentucky. But first, the batter making group has to get federal funding for the project. Here’s >> Continue reading: Battery Makers May Build Plant In Hardin County
Hebert said we may get plant, which is what we said in the newser. Hebert said, but first, we have obtain the funding, which is what we said in the newser.
As to your specific concerns, nothing about the number of jobs has changed. The amount of funding, if we get it, will determine the size and scope of the project. What I assume the guys were referring to last night is that the jobs will come in two phases — the first will be the more technical jobs (engineers, managers etc); the second phase will be the folks working in the facility. Nothing about the overall numbers has changed.
Thanks for letting me post. We will simply have to agree to disagree.
As an aside, after criticizing us some on the unemployment insurance, I think it would be only fair to acknowledge prominently (after suggesting we were hurting people) that the feds have agreed with our approach and we will ensure benefits for everyone eligible. I don’t recall a post on that and I would assume a number of your readers may not know that.
Thanks for your consideration.
11 jake // Apr 18, 2009 at 3:21 pm
Really? It’s an entirely different thing to say you jumped the shark? YOU DID!
Everybody and their mom from your team – and every media outlet – has played this like it’s a done deal. And that very controversy was discussed by Hebert last night.
I get that you guys are bummed over yet another moment like this. I really get it.
But you shouldn’t sell something like this as a done deal. You can explain for pages and pages. But it doesn’t change the fact that it happened.
Further – why should we trust anything from you guys? I don’t want to be a jackass (lord knows I am most of the time). But. Everyone from my friends in your office to you have lied to me at some point the past few months. Makes it really difficult.
12 jay blanton // Apr 18, 2009 at 4:19 pm
jake,
I’ve tried to be respectful in my comments here. If I haven’t, I apologize. But I don’t think that I have. I think the dialogue, which I meant to be constructive, has deterioated at this point as I think your recent post demonstrates. I don’t think I’ve ever lied to you. I don’t think we’ve had more than a few exchanges before and I’ve always tried to be responsive to you. We may not have agreed, but I haven’t lied.
Again, thanks for what you are trying to do with this site and I appreciate you allowing me to post.
13 jake // Apr 18, 2009 at 4:42 pm
I don’t think the conversation has deteriorated in the least.
Just stating the facts. You lied to me early on (I’ll dig through the archives after Thunder is over) and/or spun something to me.
Adam Edelen has lied to be several times.
There’s no love lost. Just pointing out the fact that it’s tough to trust anyone in the governor’s office because you guys have lied to be about itty bitty things in the past.
14 Thunder Storm // Apr 18, 2009 at 10:46 pm
Jay,
Thanks for NOT responding to my post. After all, I am just a Democratic voter and constituent. But you better get on the carbon tax and cap and trade issue and start talking about it. By the way the Federal EPA just named CO2 as a pollutant.
Continuing … you said in a previous post “Hebert said we may get plant, which is what we said in the newser. Hebert said, but first, we have obtain the funding, which is what we said in the newser.”
But in reality, on this WHAS video, at the 2:39 mark, Hebert said “Now Kentucky beat out seven other states to land the battery making plant AND headquarters…” Same thing the Governor said over and over in his YouTube press release.
I don’t understand why you try to spin exact quotes (words out of their mouths) from the Governors own press release on his own YouTube site. You can’t spin the exact words from the County Judge or Mayor because they are exact quotes from the WHAS story.
Cap and trade will be the biggest issue you and your collegues will have to deal with during this term. If you don’t and our electric rates triple, it’s one termer time!
Why don’t you get on Twitter so we can have 140 letter conversations. Many politicians are on Twitter and answer questions from their constituents.
15 Conservative // Apr 19, 2009 at 7:14 pm
Just pointing out the fact that it’s tough to trust anyone in the governor’s office because you guys have lied to be about itty bitty things in the past.
It comes from the top down. Beshear makes Jones look competent. The man and his top administrators are idiots. Hell, the man can’t even get his top issue (casino gambling) passed out of the GA and onto the ballot. And when you put idiots like Jonathan Miller and Joe Prather into high positions of authority, what can you expect?
And to think that 62 percent or so of the electorate in this state swallowed the snake oil Greg Stumbo was selling and turned an excellent governor out of office for this charlatan and simpleton. Kinda reinforces all those stereotypes of Kentuckians as ignorant.
Don’t blame me, I voted to re-elect Fletcher.
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