"This is seed money that will return back to the American consumer in billions and billions and billions of dollars in good new jobs." 

Vice President Joe Biden made that bold statement in 2009 when he announced more than half a billion dollars in a taxpayer-backed loan to Fisker Automotive.

The green energy car company makes hybrid vehicles.

The company currently employs several hundred workers. At its plant in Finland.  Making a $100,000 luxury sports car.

Biden made his announcement at a Delaware plant that was closed in 2009 as part of the General Motors bankruptcy. Fisker promised to build a more affordable sedan (here & here) at the plant.  If a $50,000 price tag is considered affordable.

The company promised the plant would be in full production this year and would turn out 100,000 cars annually.

We visited the plant days ago. Just after it reportedly laid-off about a dozen employees leaving only a handful of workers. We met with a representative who refused to answer our questions in a parking lot with only four cars.

Taxpayers will be stuck with the bill - up to half a billion dollars -- if Fisker Automotive fails. It's difficult to understand how the company will survive if it isn't building -- let alone selling -- cars.

[Read the following column for more on this story (here).]