Underneath the foreseeable fiasco is a scandal that views like a Solyndra rerun, and a grotesquely wasteful government—and as if Solyndra-esque plotlines and a federal government taking our hard earned money to prop up both parties on either end of a business deal from which a vast majority of the country does not benefit weren’t realities obscene and condemning enough, the latest act in the unfolding rechargeable vehicle drama of Jackson’s START system now can add a 100% failure rate of the product to the list. Cowboy State Daily’s Kevin Killough penned an article last week covering the news:

The Southern Teton Area Rapid Transit (START) system, a joint operation between Jackson and Teton County, bought eight electric buses to complement its fleet of 31.

But none of the electric buses are running, and so the town’s transit system is relying on its diesel fleet.

Last month, the electric bus manufacturer that supplied START, California-based Proterra, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

The Jackson Hole News & Guide reports that the last of the electric buses went out of service two months ago, and some of the broken buses have been awaiting parts for months.

START Director Bruce Abel told Cowboy State Daily that the agency still isn’t sure when those parts will come or when its electric fleet will be running again.

What should serve as egg on the face for the dopes behind this scheme is it’s not like the “100% failure rate” comment is a crafty attempt to manipulate an anti-E.V. narrative, like it would be if the “fleet” were only comprised of one bus; but this fleet is eight buses, all of which we can reasonably expect will never run again, given Proterra’s recent bankruptcy. Second of all, the Jackson Hole locale? What an asinine “investment” given the frigid temperatures that prohibit the proper function of rechargeable vehicles for a large part of the year.

Per Killough, a local resident who once sat on the county governing board said of the giant boondoggle from reliable diesel, to rechargeable electric, then back to diesel was that, and I know you’re going to have a hard time believing this (not), but, it was the manifestation of naive leftists who threw pragmatism out the window:

Paul Vogelheim … told Cowboy State Daily that 15 years ago, he and other residents of the area wanted to improve the county road system to make traffic flow smoothly across the Snake River. 

Then, the idea of electric buses became some ‘noise’ along the way, he said, and the road improvements they wanted never materialized.

He said it was difficult to move forward with road projects in a community with a strong voice of ‘not in my backyard.’

…

Instead, a majority wanted driving to remain inconvenient in hopes that people would ride more bikes and take public transit, Vogelheim said, adding, ‘That’s not very practical.’

He said with a good supply of natural gas available, the transit system should have looked into natural gas vehicles.

‘We missed the boat there with our electric bus purchases, and obviously a bad choice of vendor,’ Vogelheim said.

What’s crazy is that this foreseeable fiasco arguably isn’t the most scandalous layer. About two months ago my colleague Monica Showalter authored a blog covering the company’s meteoric rise and subsequent bankruptcy, leaving the taxpayers with the debt—smelled like Solyndra—as well as the double-doling of our money, lining the pockets of both Proterra (at least $8 billion) and the purchasers, like Jackson, via federal grants.

But then, get this. As Killough also reported:

According to the News & Guide, the eight buses in its fleet cost $2.3 million, 80% of which was covered by a Federal Transit Administration (FTA) grant in 2019. Between 2020 and 2021, similar grants provided another $2.6 million, and START plans to spend $3.3 million for four more electric buses.

This time another company other than Proterra will be filling the order, and delivery is years away.

Arrested development leftists beget grotesque waste, and we all have to live with the consequences.

Image: Free image, Pixabay license, no attribution required.