Waltham, Massachusetts battery company A123 is bankrupt.  A123 which makes batteries for electric vehicles, was awarded a $249 million federal grant which does not need to be repaid as would a loan.

The filing may fuel a debate over government financing of alternative-energy and transportation businesses. Federal grants and loans to companies including A123, Fisker Automotive Inc. and Tesla Motors Inc. (TSLA) have drawn scrutiny from congressional Republicans following the September 2011 bankruptcy filing of solar-panel maker Solyndra LLC two years after it received a $535 million loan guarantee from the U.S. Energy Department. Bloomberg

The A123 bankruptcy follows in the wake of a host of green energy bankruptcies.   Shouldn’t we learn from Solyndra, Evergreen Solar, Q-Cells and the rest?  Solyndra’s executives took the fifth, but we don’t think they missed any meals. Green energy  profiteers get rich and leave workers and taxpayers to share the pain.