Illinois taxpayers are funding one of the most expensive – and least discussed – economic and national security boondoggles in state history.
Governor J.B. Pritzker has already directed $165 million in taxpayer money to Gotion, a CCP-linked battery manufacturer, while committing hundreds of millions more to subsidize an industry that cannot survive without government handouts. The result is a costly web of subsidies, political favoritism, and growing ties to companies connected to America’s primary foreign adversary.
But first, let’s start with the infographic below:
The information for the above graphic comes from a recent press release by the Illinois Finance Authority. In the press release, they say these chargers are “funded by the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) Charging and Fueling Infrastructure (CFI) Grant Program.” This program was funded during the Biden administration, and the money is just now getting deployed.
In 2023, IFA was awarded a $15 million grant by USDOT under President Joe Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to fund publicly accessible EV charging and alternative-fueling infrastructure through two tracks: Community Grants and Corridor Grants.
Taxpayers should not have to fund charging stations for Tesla or Rivian owners. Governor Pritzker continues to do so, convinced that there is a climate crisis and that ridding Illinois of fossil fuels will solve it.
And Pritzker is doubling down on that premise – that fossil fuels are bad – by forcing taxpayers to subsidize uneconomical and nonsensical grid-scale batteries.
It begs the question – Is Pritzker China’s Favorite Governor?
Last fall, the legislature passed the Climate Resilience and Grid Advancement (CRGA) program, whose primary objective was to bring more battery storage to the grid. Read the Citizens Utility Board info on CRGA HERE.
Grid-scale batteries, however, do not make any sense economically; they can’t turn a profit on their own, so any build-out is only going to happen with taxpayer subsidies.
Energy and climate expert Steve Goreham, who has been on my radio show numerous times, has noted over and over again that a grid-scale battery power costs 10x the amount of the power itself.
The information below is from Steve Goreham.
Governor Pritzker and the Democrats are moving forward with batteries anyway, despite the cost.
The latest boondoggle from Pritzker is the May 2026 announcement that Richardson Electronics, located in La Fox, Illinois, is partnering with Gotion, Inc. in Manteno to support battery energy storage systems (BESS) production and deployment.
According to a press release about the partnership, Richardson Electronics “will leverage its extensive experience in the U.S. energy market to support commercialization, engineering integration, and go-to-market strategy” in deploying these systems. Also noted is that the “Illinois Climate Resilience and Grid Advancement (CRGA) program…provides rebates of up to $250 per kWh for standalone battery energy storage systems.” For a 5MWh battery, that equals $1,250,000.
Not mentioned in Richardson Electronics’ press release is that they signed a deal with Pritzker’s DCEO to get $8,611,130 in tax credits for their help in deploying BESS systems.
None of these deals make sense economically. Grid-scale solar and BESS would not be built without massive taxpayer subsidies and renewable portfolio energy mandates. And the entire industry wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for the global warming hysteria of the 1970’s.
Steve Goreham wrote this about the overall cost of battery storage
Grid-scale batteries have come down but still remain at about $850,000 per megawatt for a 4-hour duration output.
Six of these batteries would be needed to back up the solar for an entire day, costing about $5 million to back up a $1 million solar system. But the lives of the batteries are only 10-12 years, about one-half of the life of the solar system. Therefore, batteries are still 10 times as expensive as the solar that they are trying to back up.
And, if you get two days without sun, the system would produce a day of outages. Solar and batteries cannot replace traditional power plants.
No amount of information, though, on climate change causes, the economics of renewable energy, or the life-cycle environmental impact of renewable energy will change Pritzker’s mind – he’s all in to waste money on this foolishness. The $8.6 million to Richardson Electronics pales in comparison to the $165 million he has already given Gotion, Inc., and the $536 million in total Gotion has been promised.
We shouldn’t subsidize any of these systems; let them build a profitable business on their own.
Most importantly, we shouldn’t be working with CCP-backed Gotion, Inc.
Even before President Trump’s speech on Thursday night in which he described China’s theft of 220 million voter files, China’s influence operations through U.S. media and businesses on presidential elections, and the manufacture of votes for Biden, we should not have been subsidizing any Chinese company.
Gotion, Inc. wants to pretend it isn’t a Chinese-run company, but it is. That means Illinois taxpayers are subsidizing our number one adversary. The China ties are indisputable.
On September 8, 2023, Gov. Pritzker and Ambassador Chen Li announced the deal with Gotion and the opening of their EV battery assembly plant in Manteno, Illinois. Chen Li is the son of a prominent very high-level politburo member of the Communist Chinese Party.
In an article about the Richardson Electronics and Gotion partnership, an industry publication, Energy Storage News, began by describing Gotion as “China-headquartered energy storage firm Gotion.”
In that article, Energy Storage News noted that the partnership “comes at a time when Chinese companies are starting to sell down stakes in US assets amid new FEOC rules.”
Foreign Entity of Concern (FEOC) – What’s that, and does Gotion qualify as such?
It is likely that, by partnering with Richardson Electronics, Gotion hopes to dilute its Chinese footprint and appear more American or global (it manufactures in Germany, Slovakia, and Southeast Asia). This is important because, according to the Energy Storage News article, FEOC restrictions on tax credits became effective this year and “make projects ineligible if they use technology from companies which are 75% (or more) owned by companies seen to have links with FEOC entities (China, Russia etc.).”
Energy Storage News says, “The partnership between Richardson and Gotion therefore seems unlikely to be the last announcement regarding Gotion’s manufacturing activities in the US in the near future.”
Gotion is trying to dilute its Chinese backing by partnering with American companies. Regardless, these tax credits for “clean energy” are costly and should not be supplied.
Under Biden, when the misnamed Inflation Reduction Act passed, the CATO Institute analyzed the bill and wrote the following:
Using a transparent budget scoring methodology, we estimate that the energy subsidies in the act will cost between $936 billion and $1.97 trillion over the next 10 years, and between $2.04 trillion and $4.67 trillion by 2050. This estimate is substantial because several of the IRA’s largest subsidies are uncapped.
Nearly $2 Trillion over the next 10 years and up to $4.67 Trillion by 2050 – for “clean energy” that is not clean or affordable. (American fossil fuel energy is a much better, and arguably cleaner way to power America.)
The IRA, though, had restrictions on what companies could receive these credits and disallowed them for FEOC companies, which included “An entity owned by, controlled by, or subject to the jurisdiction or direction of a foreign government.” Sounds like Gotion, in my opinion.
President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill expanded the definition of a FEOC and created “two new FEOC categories: (1) Specified Foreign Entities, and (2) Foreign Influenced Entities. Both categories are considered Prohibited Foreign Entities (PFEs). Any PFE is a FEOC.” Read more details HERE and HERE.
The SFE definition includes:
A foreign-controlled entity, defined as a government, individual, business, or entity (including subsidiaries) under the control of China, Russia, North Korea, or Iran, including any citizens of those countries or an entity controlled by another entity where more than 50% of the stock, 50% of the profit or capital interests, or 50% of the beneficial interest lies with a government, individual, or business of China, Russia, North Korea, or Iran.
It specifically applies to:
Contemporary Amperex Technology Company (CATL); BYD Company; Envision Energy; EVE Energy Company; Gotion High Tech Company; Hithium Energy Storage Company
Gotion, Inc. is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Gotion High Tech Company.
Gotion is controlled and led by Chinese citizens. Reports are that one-third of the personnel working at the plant in Manteno are Chinese foreign nationals and that the leaders are Chinese.
China wants to be the world’s dominant power, and Trump’s war with Iran is also about stopping the Chinese from achieving that goal. So why are we funding our number one adversary with costly tax credits for energy projects that make no economic sense?
And why are American companies partnering with them?
Fortunately, the Concerned Citizens of Manteno are fighting back. They saw the threat the Gotion plant poses to their health and safety and, in December 2023, filed a lawsuit against Gotion to stop their plant from operating.
That lawsuit continues today and includes a nuisance claim with two parts. The first part of the nuisance claim is that the public has a right to be protected from certain hazards. The Gotion plant presents a significant risk to the health and safety of residents and is in close proximity to residential housing, the town’s elementary school and a preschool. The plant is a fire risk and a source of highly toxic chemicals from lithium battery production.
An additional nuisance claim is novel and would establish, for the first time, that simply being a CCP-backed company, an FEOC, is a hazard to people and therefore a nuisance.
The judge is allowing this part of the claim to proceed.
The lawsuit is costly, and the Concerned Citizens of Manteno could use your help in fighting the CCP, big corporations, and big government. Gotion has already received $165 million from Illinois taxpayers since December 2023. Pritzker’s comptroller literally wrote them checks for:
– $50 million on December 8, 2023
-$75 million on January 2, 2024
– $12.5 million on September 10, 2024
– $15 million on December 30, 2025
-$12.5 million on December 30, 2025
Gotion is using this money to pay lawyers to drag out the lawsuit in hopes that the CCOM runs out of money to continue their lawsuit. We can’t let that happen.
If you are able, please help the CCOM have their day in court by donating to them. Discovery is in process, and depositions are the next step. Here is a link to the CCOM website where you can donate: https://www.nogotion-illinois.com/
One more thing to note – Gotion is ingratiating itself with the community by offering internships to high school and college students at its plant and a cultural exchange trip.
Mark Glennon, founder and CEO of Wirepoints, sent me this Shaw Local article about the internships and trip.
A group of high school and college students from central Illinois will travel to China this week after spending the summer working in advanced battery manufacturing.
The 10-day trip, departing Chicago on Sunday, July 19, is the capstone of Gotion Illinois’ inaugural International Scholar Award Program. The students—from Herscher, Bradley-Bourbonnais, Clifton Central, Manteno, and Kankakee Bishop McNamara high schools, plus interns from UIUC, UIC, Rose-Hulman, Virginia Tech, Wheaton, and ITT—will visit manufacturing facilities, universities, and cultural landmarks across Shanghai, Nanjing, Hefei, and Beijing.
The internship introduced students to careers in advanced manufacturing: engineering, quality control, supply chain, operations, and research and development. Throughout the summer, they worked at Gotion Illinois’ Manteno plant, producing energy storage systems and electric vehicle batteries.
“This is a unique opportunity to see how our local community is connected to the larger world,” said International Scholar Emily Lyle.
The trip combines workforce development, STEM education, and cultural exchange. Participants will visit the Great Wall of China, the Forbidden City, and technology-focused sites showcasing China’s advances in manufacturing and sustainable energy. For many students, it will be their first international trip.
“As a parent and a teacher, I see this as a way to showcase the value of STEM education and the ways students can connect what they learn in their classrooms to real-world opportunities,” said Tracy Lyle, a parent and educator on the delegation.
Money is fungible, so the $165 million Gotion received from Illinois taxpayers is funding these internships and a trip to China for these students.
Illinois taxpayers are literally paying for a trip to China when China is recognized as our number one adversary, we are at war with Iran, which has been supplied by China with the technology and infrastructure to attack America, and when the President has just accused China of stealing personal information on 220 Americans and trying to influence the outcome of our presidential elections.
No tax money should go to Gotion. Period. They are a FEOC. Their product would not be profitable but for massive taxpayer subsidies. Their plant is a hazard to the residents of Manteno. And, Illinois has much bigger things to spend money on.