Thread by @MatthewFoldi

NEW from me @TheSpectator:

Joe Biden's favorite electric battery company has lost almost its entire stock value as its CEO sounds the alarm about its future

thespectator.com/topic/proterra…

(1/xx)

A politically-connected electric battery company with deep ties to the Biden admin is in trouble. Proterra could be staring down financial ruin, even though everyone from the president to his cabinet have worked overtime to boost the bus company.

thespectator.com/topic/proterra…

(2/xx)

The Biden administration was supposed to be a ticket to ride for California-based Proterra. In 2021, I reported
@FreeBeacon that it told shareholders that it was ready to “ride the wave” of taxpayer-funded incentives for vehicle electrification.

freebeacon.com/biden-administ…

(3/xx)

Proterra had all the right friends in all the right places. It hired a lobbying firm with extensive ties to Democratic politics weeks before Biden toured its facility, as I reported @FreeBeacon.

freebeacon.com/biden-administ…

(4/xx)

As I've reported extensively for years, @SecGranholm was on Proterra's board until 2021, and she held millions of dollars of stock while serving as energy secretary until my reporting, and pressure from Congress, forced her to sell it.

thespectator.com/topic/proterra…

(5/xx)

After @SecGranholm sold hundreds of thousands of non-public Proterra shares for a profit of over $1 million to an undisclosed buyer (who she promised to disclose, but has NEVER done so), it merged with a public company Arclight and its thespectator.com/topic/proterra…… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

While @SecGranholm netted a pretty penny from her Proterra selloff, other investors haven’t been nearly as lucky, as I've also been reporting for years.

freebeacon.com/biden-administ…

(7/xx)

Following the company’s most recent quarterly report, published this month, its stock tumbled approximately 50 percent almost overnight to a low of $1.14 a share, down from a high of almost $27 a share the week before Joe Biden took office.

thespectator.com/topic/proterra…

(8/xx)

At that time, the company was privately held as a special purpose acquisition company called Arclight that subsequently went public on the Nasdaq.

thespectator.com/topic/proterra…

(9/xx)

During the most recent quarterly report, Proterra’s CFO said the company is “disappointed” with its recent gross margin performance.

thespectator.com/topic/proterra…

(10/xx)

During the company’s most recent earnings call, Proterra's CEO addressed filings the company made with the Securities and Exchange Committee that “include management and auditor reports disclosing material weaknesses in our internal controls.”

thespectator.com/topic/proterra…

(11/xx)

Those filings, in Proterra’s NT 10-K form, detail that Proterra has “deficiencies affecting multiple processes including but not limited to treasury and accounts receivable, equity and share based compensation, HR/payroll, fixed assets, warranty, thespectator.com/topic/proterra…… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

Following the call, investor confidence in Proterra tumbled. The company scored a minor win in the days following the call, when it announced an amendment to its credit agreement regarding its convertible debt.

thespectator.com/topic/proterra…

(13/xx)

According to Barron’s, “Proterra had been in violation of rules that required its cash balance to be above a certain level, known as the minimum liquidity covenant… Proterra got some much needed relief from lenders. It came at a price.”

barrons.com/articles/prote…

(14/xx)

Proterra’s perilous financial standing likely doesn’t concern @SecGranholm, whose blatant conflict of interest would doubtless have generated outrage and front page news in a previous era. Not in the Biden presidency, however.

thespectator.com/topic/proterra…

(15/xx)

As I reported two years ago @FreeBeacon, @mmfa, a left-wing media referee founded by Hillary Clinton errand boy David Brock, previously paid Granholm hundreds of thousands of dollars for advice prior to her joining the Biden administration. It then leapt freebeacon.com/politics/jenni…… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

Despite @mmfa’s gaslighting, @SecGranholm’s relationship with Proterra has had serious consequences; the company recently conveyed concern to its shareholders over its ability to fulfill basic fiduciary responsibilities, sending its stock into an freebeacon.com/politics/jenni…… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

Part of Proterra’s problems may be that its best connection in the Biden administration is too busy dealing with a series of problems of her own making to truly be able to help.

thespectator.com/topic/proterra…

(18/xx)

For years, @SecGranholm has run an operation her critics have attacked for its “pattern of ethical issues,” but she hasn’t let the rules get in the way.

In 2021, @GOPOversight members #SC05 @RepRalphNorman #NM02 @RepHerrell, and #AZ09 @RepGosar wrote to freebeacon.com/biden-administ…… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

READ the letter @GOPOversight members #SC05 @RepRalphNorman #NM02 @RepHerrell, and #AZ09 @RepGosar wrote to @SecGranholm here

freebeacon.com/wp-content/upl…

(20/xx)

How little does @SecGranholm care about following the rules? In one instance, Granholm’s team told me that the energy secretary is too busy fighting climate change to follow the laws she was violating, as I reported @FreeBeacon.

freebeacon.com/biden-administ…

(21/xx)

On another occasion, @SecGranholm violated the Hatch Act by using her official position to urge Americans to vote for Democrats in an interview with a Democratic megadonor’s daughter, as I also reported @FreeBeacon after it happened.

freebeacon.com/biden-administ…

(22/xx)

It's very clear my reporting directly led to @SecGranholm being found guilty of violating the Hatch Act. However, there were no consequences for the Harvard Law School-educated former Michigan attorney general, because the special counsel determined that freebeacon.com/biden-administ…… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

Within weeks of Joe Biden taking office, he toured Proterra, touting it while his energy secretary still owned millions of dollars of its stock!!!!!!

thespectator.com/topic/proterra…

(24/xx)

Beyond Biden’s multiple Proterra visits, it's been promoted by @KamalaHarris, @PeteButtigieg, and, of course, @SecGranholm — who’s spoken at government-funded events with Proterra buses in the background, as I've also reported @FreeBeacon.

freebeacon.com/biden-administ…

(25/xx)

In November 2021, @SecGranholm threw Proterra a massive bone, speaking at an event where she was flanked by Proterra buses and where over $100 million in government contracts were doled out!!

freebeacon.com/biden-administ…

(26/xx)

Immediately, @PublicsTrust, a watchdog group, submitted a watchdog complaint, arguing that @SecGranholm’s “flagrant” violation of her ethical obligations needed an immediate review, as I, you guessed it, reported @FreeBeacon.

freebeacon.com/biden-administ…

(27/xx)

Beyond the current top officials in the Biden administration, Proterra’s backers have also included former vice president Al Gore (who has lobbied the Biden White House on green energy initiatives) and the family of Democratic megadonor, #ILGOV freebeacon.com/biden-administ…… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

In fact, one of Proterra’s earliest financial backers was Democratic megadonor @Chamath Palihapitiya, a controversial billionaire venture capitalist, who called Proterra his “biggest investment in climate change.” Palihapitiya argued that his investment in thespectator.com/topic/proterra…… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

As I also reported @FreeBeacon, Biden’s former director of the National Economic Council, Brian Deese, was poised to indirectly benefit from Proterra’s rise due to his massive financial stake in Blackrock, the finance giant which was one of several freebeacon.com/biden-administ…… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

Like Biden, Granholm, Harris and Buttitigeg, Deese also toured the company in his official administration role. Proterra’s former CEO, Jack Allen, was a featured speaker at multiple Biden administration conferences — in one of them, Biden national climate freebeacon.com/biden-administ…… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

At that event, @ginamccarthy46 lavished praise on Proterra, saying that “Proterra manufactures half of the US’s electric bus market, which is pretty amazing.” @SecGranholm also spoke at the summit.

freebeacon.com/biden-administ…

(32/xx)

The company’s political connections haven’t been enough to offset the problems with the product, however. In Juneau, Alaska, Proterra was “sputtering” and a “bust” with major technical difficulties. At issue was “a faulty wiring harness that the transit thespectator.com/topic/proterra…… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

Proterra’s problems were enough to force the city to shelve the buses, but Juneau is not done with electric battery buses; it’s just done with Proterra, choosing instead to go with one of its rivals, @gilligllc, moving forward.

thespectator.com/topic/proterra…

(34/xx)

Juneau’s Capital Transit Superintendent Rich Ross was not a fan of Proterra. “While this bus has been a lemon — somewhat of a lemon — we also understand the technology is improving in leaps and bounds as time goes on.”

thespectator.com/topic/proterra…

(35/xx)

Beyond the wiring problems Proterra faced, Ross said that its promised 210-mile range is more than double what it actually can yield in practice, and that Proterra hadn’t supplied him with the spare parts he requested.

thespectator.com/topic/proterra…

(36/xx)

It’s not just cold weather that poses problems for Proterra. Philadelphia public radio station WHYY reported that the city’s Proterra fleet was in shambles in 2021, and that at one point it removed its entire fleet of Proterras from service. Just like in whyy.org/articles/septa…… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

In Duluth, Minnesota, city officials waited three years for Proterras but pulled them from service because “their braking systems were struggling on Duluth’s hills, and a software problem was causing them to roll back when accelerating uphill from a thespectator.com/topic/proterra…… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

In California, a Proterra bus fire prompted city officials to consider shelving its entire electric bus fleet, and in 2015, a Proterra prototype caught fire and exploded, @GreenvilleNews reported.

greenvilleonline.com/story/news/loc…

(39/xx)

The story of Proterra raises critical questions about an entire industry, plagued by conflicts of interest, that seeks to sell the American public on the idea that powerful, politically connected politicians should be granted the right to capitalize on the thespectator.com/topic/proterra…… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

Meanwhile, retail investors are now left holding the bag on an investment they were convinced by those same leaders would lead to profit based on political connections and lofty promises. The question now is whether those same investors were misled, or thespectator.com/topic/proterra…… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

For all the talk about an “equitable” green energy “transition,” it seems that the only ones that capitalizing on it are the same well-connected liberal billionaires bankrolling the political ambitions of the Democratic Party.

thespectator.com/topic/proterra…

(42/xx)