Republicans were quick to rebuke the Obama administration after a third clean-energy company to receive taxpayer dollars, Ener1, filed for bankruptcy protection earlier this week.

But absent from their critique of Ener1—which was awarded a $118.5 million grant from the Department of Energy in 2009 to expand an Indianapolis manufacturing plant— has been any mention that the electric battery manufacturer was also championed by one of the GOP’s rising stars, Gov. Mitch Daniels.

In 2008, with the backing of Daniels, the Indiana Economic Development Corp. offered the Ener1′s sister company, EnerDel, up to $7.125 million in performance-based tax credits and $58,000 in training grants. Daniels, who delivered the GOP response to President Obama’s State of the Union address on Tuesday, also joined company executives in May 2010 to announce the signing of a letter of intent to create a joint venture with a Chinese auto parts manufacturer.

The DOE grant was funded through President Obama’s $800 billion stimulus plan that was intended to restart the economy. Vice President Biden visited the plant last year, and the White House had listed Ener1 as one of “100 Recovery Projects that are Changing America.”

The two other alternative energy firms to file for bankruptcy — solar panel manufacturer Solyndra and the energy storage company Beacon Power — were funded through the Energy Department’s loan-guarantee program.

“Sadly, the Department of Energy’s jobs record seems to grow worse by the day – first Solyndra, then Beacon Power, and now Ener1 – and it is American taxpayers who are paying the price,” said Rep. Cliff Stearns, the Florida Republican who is heading the GOP investigation of the $535 million loan guarantee to Solyndra. “One bankruptcy may be a fluke, two could be coincidence, but three is a trend.”

Daniels, a former budget director in the George W. Bush administration, has backed Ener1 for several years. Ener1 has also received support from Sens. Richard Lugar, a Republican, and former Sen. Evan Bayh, a Democrat, who wrote a joint letter to Energy Sec. Stephen Chu in June 2009 backing the DOE grant.

Daniels, however, has stood out among lawmakers in his backing of the company.

“No single individual has been more important to us than Gov. Mitch Daniels, our advocate in chief in Washington and on missions abroad,” said former Ener1 CEO Charles Gassenheimer at a 2010 event to announce the joint venture with the Chinese auto parts company.

Jake Oakman, a spokesman for Daniels, said on Friday that the governor had no comment about the bankruptcy.

In the Republican response to the State of the Union address earlier this week, Daniels offered a stinging rebuke of Obama’s stimulus spending, which included the Ener1 grant.

“The president’s grand experiment in trickle-down government has held back rather than sped economic recovery,” Daniels said. He added that “the late Steve Jobs – what a fitting name he had – created more of them than all those stimulus dollars the President borrowed and blew.”

Kirsten Kukowski, a spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee, said there is no disconnect between GOP criticism of Obama’s clean-energy programs and Daniels backing of Ener1.

“This is about more than just Ener1,” Kukowski said. “When you combine this with Solyndra, other clean energy companies, the stimulus, there is a clear pattern with President Obama.”

Copyright 2012 USATODAY.com

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