Though it is important for American battery companies to be competitive with their Asian counterparts, I do no think that we should subsidize battery manufacture.

First, we really don't need it. America has some of the best university research facilities in the world. Many VCs are willing to fund clean tech developments.

Second, subsidizing battery manufacturers will make them dependent on government handouts to remain competitive. Other countries don't subsidize (aside from some R&D money) their manufacturers. Look at the disaster that farm subsidies have created: we spend $80bn annually to "help" the farmers, mostly by paying them to not grow crops.

Third, at a time when the Federal budget deficit is expected to reach $1 trillion in FY2009, it's rather insensitive for these manufacturers to demand money from the already overburdened taxpayer. Public money is for the public good, not for private interests.

I realize that the bailout culture has begun when we bailed out the banks. It continued when we bailed out the automakers. Both bailouts were wrong. The battery manufacturers, who are in much better financial shape than their bank and automaker counterparts, should not get Federal money to build a battery manufacturing plant. Three wrongs don't make a right.