Genius: Administration spending millions to train firefighters how to combat exploding Chevy Volts

Everything the Obama administration touches turns to crap: it has hollowed out the military, de-funded NASA, raided the Strategic Petroleum Reserve for purely political reasons, devastated the health care system, and wasted billions on crony green investments. Exhibit A: the disastrous Chevy Volt:

Last week, the Obama Administration sought to increase the Chevrolet Volt purchaser tax credit from $7,500 to $10,000.

All this for a car so dangerous to first responders that the Department of Energy allocated $4.4 million dollars for programs to prevent fire fighters from electrocuting themselves while trying to rescue crash victims.

...According to industry expert Gary Howell of Howell Automotive, one of the problems lies with the batteries that power the vehicle. “The lithium-ion used in modern electric cars are not like the old lead-acid batteries of the past. They are more powerful and, when damaged, the fluid inside can leak out, creating a short on the circuit boards that are used to control the batteries. The fluid dries and crystallizes, creating a short, sometimes weeks after the damage to the battery occurred.”

This results in spontaneous fires, such as happened in a Volt three weeks after a crash test at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration...

...The General Motors Service Technical College provides technical materials to first responders around the country. Just this week, their publication on the Volt was cited by a Baltimore County, Maryland Fire Service Special Interest Bulletin. After a bizarre paragraph extolling the virtues of the car itself, the bulletin gets down to the business of informing fire fighters of how to not kill themselves trying to rescue a crash victim...

“There is a yellow First Responder cable “cut” tag wrapped around the low volt positive battery cable behind the fuse panel door, located on the left side of the rear compartment (see diagram on next page). This cable should be cut first to disable the vehicle safely before beginning any extrication. The cable should be cut on both sides of the label to ensure the cut cable ends do not inadvertently touch and re-energize the vehicle.”

General Motors also warns that “cutting these cables can result in serious injury or death.”

Hence the need for spending $4.4 million in taxpayer money to train firefighters across the country to protect themselves from a car that the government paid people $7,500 per unit to purchase...

I challenge any of you liberals our there to tell me one thing this president has done to advance free enterprise and individual liberty. In fact, I've got five (5) shiny 1 oz. U.S. Silver Eagles (retail value about $160) to the first drone liberal to give me one documented Obama achievement in strengthening the private sector. I won't hold my breath.


Hat tip: Weasel Zippers.