Five years ago, Kentucky lawmakers bet big on the electric future. They threw hundreds of millions in forgivable loans at Ford to build a massive EV battery plant in Glendale, imagining assembly lines humming, workers clocking in, prosperity blooming across the bluegrass. Now, with the facility shuttered before it even properly opened, those same legislators are sitting in budget committee meetings wondering how they’ll ever see that taxpayer money again.
Wednesday morning brought Jeff Noel, Kentucky’s economic development secretary, before the Senate appropriations committee to deliver what can only be described as carefully worded optimism. The existing loan agreement is clear: Ford and its South Korean partner owe a $10 million payment by March, having spectacularly failed to hit their employment targets.
But here’s where it gets interesting. Ford, mid-negotiation, now promises to pour another $2 billion into the site, not for EV batteries, mind you, but for battery energy storage systems. Different product, same building, fewer jobs. Instead of 5,000 positions, they’re talking 2,100.
Noel couldn’t share all the negotiation details, but did mention something “promising”. Ford taking on the entire $250 million loan responsibility instead of splitting it with their now-absent partner. That second building on site? Ford won’t run it, but they’ll totally market it to another manufacturer.
The state still wants those original 5,000 jobs, Noel said, though achieving that might require “some type of modified repayment program with the loan”, bureaucratic speak for “we’re probably renegotiating everything.”
Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Chris McDaniel, a Republican from Ryland Heights, struck a tone of cautious pragmatism. Legislators and the administration have a duty to ensure tax dollars are spent wisely and loan conditions met. But under circumstances that are “far from ideal”, he conceded the government is “doing the best job possible”. Which is probably what you say when your quarter-billion-dollar industrial romance suddenly announces it’s switching careers and needs to renegotiate the prenup.
