Ford Motor Co.’s $11 billion electric vehicle efforts in Kentucky and Tennessee were boosted Thursday by a $9.2 billion Federal loan.

The loan will come through the U.S. Department of Energy’s loan programs office. The loan programs office funds projects in line with the government’s energy goals. The office says its mission is “building a bridge to bankability.”

The loan programs office is not a jobs program. The three facilities funded will create only 5,000 temporary construction jobs and 7,500 jobs in operations. The loan is about funding a green energy project, on the premise that it will reduce the use of gasoline.

From the U.S. Department of Energy’s press release:

Together, the plants, one located in Tennessee and two in Kentucky, will enable more than 120 gigawatt hours of U.S. battery production annually and displace more than 455 million gallons of gasoline per year for the lifetime of the vehicles powered by these batteries. The project is expected to create a total of approximately 5,000 constructions jobs in Tennessee and Kentucky, and 7,500 operations jobs once the plants are up and running.

The facilities are a joint venture between Ford and SK ON, a South Korea-based EV battery manufacturer.

Ford got a similar loan in September 2009 for $5.9 billion, “to upgrade 13 facilities in Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, New York, and Ohio,” the Department of Energy said.

“The resulting state-of-the-art assembly and manufacturing plants have the enhanced flexibility of producing multiple-platform, fuel-efficient advanced technology vehicles in response to changing market demands and fuel efficiency standards,” the department added.

Ford repaid the loan in June 2022. The government said the loan benefited the climate by saving 268 million gallons of gasoline each year.

“Several steps remain for the project to reach critical milestones,” the department said of the current loan, “and certain conditions must be satisfied before DOE issues a final loan.”

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer believes Michigan should build the infrastructure for two million EVs by 2030. Michigan had 17,500 EVs in 2021.

Tim Rugg, a 22-year veteran of the Ann Arbor Fire Department, was fired in Dec. 2021 for refusing to comply with a COVID vaccination mandate. But before that happened, he was disciplined for attending a protest against Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s lockdown policies during the COVID pandemic, Michigan Capitol Confidential has learned through an open records request.

An employee disciplinary report filed against Rugg says he was given a verbal reprimand for attending an April 30, 2020, protest at the Michigan Capitol.

It cites his own statement — “Rugg admitted to traveling to the State Capitol on April 30, 2020 to attend an event with several hundred people” — as well as media photos showing people who were unmasked and also not practicing social distancing.

Ruggs was suspended and then fired in late 2021 for not getting a COVID-19 vaccine. Ruggs made an unsuccessful attempt to get an exemption from the mandate, citing religious grounds.

A month after the lockdown protest and week after the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police, Ann Arbor Mayor Christopher Taylor attended a Black Lives Matter protest. By attending the June 2, 2020, event, Taylor defied the governor’s lockdown orders. Two days later, Whitmer violated her own order by attending a similar event.

Rugg is suing the city over his termination, as CapCon has previously reported. CapCon submitted a FOIA request for his personnel file after he was terminated from city employment solely for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine. Rugg was one of only a few city employees who was not granted a religious exemption.

The city notes in Rugg’s personnel file:

Media photos from the [April 2020 lockdown protest] event show that social distancing and face coverings were not being used. Other alternative and reasonable means of communication and interaction with state elected officials to express his constitutional rights could have been utilized. His attendance and exposure placed himself, members of the Ann Arbor Fire Department and citizens of the City at extremely high risk for COVID-19 exposure. By his actions, D/O Rugg violated Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s Executive Order No. 2020-59.

Taylor and a spokeswoman for the city of Ann Arbor did not respond to emails seeking comment.