Another talk-radio talking point demolished -- Akerson: GM not told by U.S. to develop Volt
General Motors CEO Dan Akerson plans to stress during a congressional hearing this morning that the Obama administration had nothing to do with the creation of the Volt or anything to do with how the battery fires were reported and investigated.
Critics have suggested regulators withheld information about the first fire to protect the Obama administration's stake in GM. So Akerson plans to say the Obama administration did not direct GM to develop the Volt, according to a prepared statement. The first Volt was unveiled in October 2008, before President Barack Obama's election.
"GM's decision (to develop the Volt) was not based on any clairvoyant power to correctly predict the 2008 presidential election," Akerson plans to say. He also will point to government electric-car subsidies created in 2005 -- "again, well before the current administration."
The hearing is titled "Volt Vehicle Fire: What Did NHTSA (the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) Know and When Did They Know It?" The first fire occurred in May 2011, three weeks after a Volt battery was punctured in a crash test.
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