LANSING, Mich. (Michigan News Source) — Michigan’s green-energy gamble has fizzled again. 

Just two years after Governor Gretchen Whitmer touted Our Next Energy (ONE) as the future of green manufacturing, the state-backed battery startup has laid off most of its workers and abandoned its Van Buren Township facility despite taking $70 million in taxpayer money.

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The company’s founder, Mujeeb Ijaz, has been here before. He helped lead A123 Systems, another taxpayer-funded battery venture that went bankrupt in 2012 after pocketing nearly $400 million in state and federal aid.

This time around, ONE promised a $1.6 billion investment and 2,112 jobs. Today, the jobs are gone, the plant is empty, and taxpayers are left holding the bill.

Critics say Michigan keeps making the same expensive mistake. “One company failing to live up to promises is not an aberration, it should be an expectation for lawmakers,” James Hohman of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy told Michigan Capitol Confidential, noting that 91% of the state’s job-subsidy deals fall short of their promises.

The Michigan Economic Development Corporation says it’s now reviewing its incentive deal with ONE and has halted any further payments. The $70.2 million already disbursed, however, is unlikely to be recovered.

For Michigan, the battery boom keeps looking more like a recurring power outage.