White House: We Didn't Tell The NHSTA To Keep The Volt Engine Fire Secret. That Just Sort of Happened.

Sure why not. You've been nothing but a straight-shooter with me thusfar.

The White House had no role in the decision to delay disclosure of a fire that broke out ina crash-tested Chevrolet Volt, the Obama administration told Congress on Friday.

National Highway Traffic Safety Administrator David Strickland said the White House had been informed in September of the fire that broke in June but didn't ask the agency to keep the information secret.

..

NHTSA didn't disclose the fire took place until November, when Bloomberg News first reported it had occurred.

Now I'm googling, but I don't have the answer: This article is written confusingly, and I wonder if that is the actual intention.

Did Bloomberg report the fire after the Administration properly, publicly divulged this fact, or did Bloomberg learn of this from a source when it was still being kept secret, thus forcing the Administration's hand?

Isn't that rather important? Shouldn't this media outlet (the Detroit News) said one way or the other? And if they don't say one way or the other -- which should be my presumption?

I don't know; I'm still trying to find out. Let me know if you know.

It opened a formal defect investigation later that month when a second Volt battery pack caught fire seven days after another government test.

The House Oversight committee, under Issa, will be examining this.

Remember, the White House previously arranged an emergency capital infusion into the dying Solyndra, despite analysts' telling them it was throwing good money after bad. And they seemed to do so to avoid a bankruptcy notice before the 2010 elections.

And we'll be talking more about that next post.

Via @williamamos.

Update: This isn't conclusive, but the way I read this, Bloomberg had sources (undisclosed) and thus had a scoop. They weren't simply regurgitating a formal release of information.

Barack Hussein Obama

We leak details about the Osama bin Ladin operation to our buddies in Hollywood, but our failures in running Government Motors are officially State Secrets.

posted by Ace at 03:26 PM

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