The writer, a Los Angeles freelancer and former Detroit News business reporter, writes a blog, Starkman Approved.
By Eric Starkman
Here’s an undeniable truth about GM CEO Mary Barra and her “north star” zero-emissions, green-energy ambitions: they were all predicated on the charity of U.S. taxpayers.
GM CEO Mary Barra
Barra’s EV crusade was powered not by visionary risk, but by feeding from the public trough—generous taxpayer rebates even for EVs built in Mexico; taxpayers asked to fund the charging infrastructure necessary for mass adoption; taxpayers expected to bankroll the retooling of U.S. factories for EV production.
Barra apparently assumed President Biden—to whom she reportedly was close and whose chief legislative aide was a former GM lobbyist—would win reelection. When Americans instead sent Donald Trump back to the White House, Barra’s taxpayer gravy train was abruptly derailed.
Trump quickly moved to eliminate taxpayer EV subsidies. We’ll soon learn how well GM’s electric lineup performs without government welfare. But before that reckoning, Barra already has axed another promised “clean energy” initiative at the mere hint that taxpayer handouts might stop.
Barra’s Hydrogen Hot Air
GM last week scrapped plans for a Detroit factory and killed its hydrogen-fuel-cell program for everyday drivers. Hydrogen fuel cells generate electricity by combining hydrogen and oxygen, producing only water vapor as exhaust. GM once touted the technology as a clean-energy bridge between gasoline and battery power—one that could have given Detroit a legitimate green edge.
Top corporations getting government subsidies (Source: Good Jobs First)
Not coincidentally, the decision came days after the Trump administration floated canceling two federal grants totaling $52 million that the Biden administration had awarded GM for hydrogen development in Pontiac. GM had already mooched $9 million of that money.
Salaried workers in Pontiac tied to GM’s Hydrotec division were summarily dismissed. GM spokesman Stu Fowle declined to say how many. The Detroit factory would have employed 144 people and cost $55 million, in partnership with a subsidiary of Piston Automotive (owned by former Detroit Pistons star Vinnie Johnson). That project is now dead.
“Every company has to look at and prioritize where we apply our resources,” Fowle told the Detroit News.
Translation: with the mere threat of the subsidies disappearing, GM’s hydrogen ambitions immediately vanished with them.
Billions for Buybacks
Meanwhile, GM has spent $25 billion in the past three years buying back its stock—legal market manipulation that artificially inflated GM’s underperforming share price under Barra’s leadership. Barra has personally profited handsomely: she sold a trove of shares in 2024 and pocketed $82 million, more than the entire cost of the hydrogen venture she just killed. She recently unloaded another 40 percent of her GM holdings.
Barra’s retreat from hydrogen stands in stark contrast to Toyota and BMW, which continue investing in fuel-cell technology. Even Ford maintains hydrogen research for its heavy-duty vehicles.
Unlike Barra, the CEOs of Toyota and BMW didn’t rush blindly into EVs before consumers or infrastructure were ready. They’re building long-term capabilities; Barra chased short-term taxpayer subsidy checks.
Shamefully, Barra’s annual compensation—roughly $29 million—is about five times that of Toyota’s CEO, who runs a larger, more profitable global company.
Gov. Whitmer’s Disgrace
GM years ago was awarded $3.5 billion in Michigan grants and subsidies on the condition that it keep 4,000 jobs at Detroit’s Renaissance Center headquarters. Governor Gretchen Whitmer quietly relieved Barra of that requirement in exchange for GM’s commitment to “Factory Zero,” its heavily subsidized EV plant in Detroit.
The future of Factory Zero, where GM builds its GMC EV Hummer and Cadillac Escalade IQ, already looks shaky. About 280 employees there remain on layoff through year-end according to the Detroit Free Press. A popular YouTuber recently reported attending an auction featuring 20 brand-new, never-driven EV Hummers—vehicles that can easily retail north of six figures. When your “green halo” product goes straight from factory to auction block, that’s cause for alarm.
Adding insult to injury, a climate group has deemed the Hummer more environmentally harmful than most gas-engine vehicles. Tellingly, Barra reportedly tools around town in a black EV Hummer. Nothing says “sustainability” like a 9,000-plus-pound electric monster—a vehicle multiple reviewers said had inadequate brakes for its brawn.
GM’s Headquarters?
GM refuses to disclose how many employees it will house in its supposed new headquarters inside Dan Gilbert’s heavily subsidized Hudson’s Detroit tower. The automaker is leasing just four floors—it’s a safe bet the edifice won’t even house half the 4,000 employees GM was once required to employ in Detroit.
With more than 20,000 employees at its Warren Tech Center and key executives scattered across Silicon Valley, Austin, and a ranch in Montana, GM’s Hudson’s Detroit space is literally headquarters window dressing, given that its logo adorns the building.
Any reporter who refers to Hudson’s Tower as GM’s headquarters without qualification should seriously consider another line of work—perhaps applying to join the automaker’s brigade of PR folks.
The function is headed by Lin-Hua Wu, who is based in the San Francisco Bay area.
