Cited: MSNBC

The Chevy Volt, the all-electric car manufactured by General Motors, finds itself in the middle of a Washington D. C. firestorm, the political type that continues to engulf much of the district these days. One side of the aisle is accusing the Obama Administration of purposely hiding manufacturing defects in the vehicle that some say has fire safety issues. Republican Jim Jordan, chairman of the House Oversight regulatory subcommittee, opened this can of worms with questions as to why U.S. safety regulators delayed a formal investigation into the potential fire hazards posed by the battery pack in the Volt for over six months. He then went on to posture that the reason may very well be that the Obama Administration has been hiding the potential problems in the Volt for its own interests; those being the U.S. government stake in G.M. and the Volt being something of a poster child for the Administration’s advocacy for the electric car industry.

The head of GM, Dan Akerson, suspects that the Volt is being used as a political football by the Republicans and Mr. Jordan for the purpose of making the Administration look bad for it’s support for the technology behind the Volt and for its close financial ties to GM and the auto industry in the wake of the economic meltdown in 2007/2008. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration conducted its own investigation into the Volt after its tests showed that the battery pack in the Volt can be the source of fires if breached in an accident. However, GM spokesmen note that not one on-the-road incident involving a fire from the Volt battery pack has ever been reported.

The NHTSA was satisfied with GM’s response to the issues with the Volt battery and the proposed remedies, and closed their probe into the matter last week. Head of the NHTSA, David Stricktland came under relentless fire from Jordan and other GOP lawmakers on the committee but he held firm to his agencies findings that the Volt battery pack posed no serious threat to the public safety and that over the course of six months, and without the benefit of any real world data, his agency and engineers did everything possible to probe the Volt for potentially hazardous fire safety risks but found no reason to issue any warnings about the electric vehicle.

Some lawmakers have accused the Obama administration of pressuring GM into hiding information about the fire risks posed by the Volt battery so as to save face for their support and subsidies for the electric car industry. GM head Akerson, a Volt owner, said that no such pressure was ever put on him or anyone at GM by the Obama Administration, further adding that the reputation of the Volt would be the only thing that has to be rebuilt after coming under attack for political purposes by the Republicans on the committee.

My take:

Yet another example of the logjam and take no prisoners mentality of politics in Washington these days. If one side found a cure for cancer, the other side would accuse them of undermining the health care industry. If there are problems with the Volt, then let’s hear about them, address them, and move on. If not, the suits in D.C. should get back to doing the job they were sent there to do and stop all the grandstanding and agenda driven non-sense.