2013 Virginia gubernatorial debates: on Energy & Oil

Terry McAuliffe: Co-founded GreenTech electric car company, in Mississippi

McAuliffe said that he "would love to have put a plant in Virginia" but that companies have a "fiduciary" duty to investors.

"Okay, you picked Mississippi, so run for governor of Mississippi," Cuccinelli said.

Terry McAuliffe: 2012: Started GreenTech electric car company & soon resigned

McAuliffe resigned as GreenTech's chairman last year but publicly acknowledged it only this month. Documents have surfaced questioning his explanation for why he located the plant in Mississippi, not Virginia, including memos from Virginia officials expressing "grave doubts" about his business model and suggesting its financing was a "visa-for-sale scheme" for Chinese investors.

McAuliffe said the struggles of GreenTech--which once promised 1,500 jobs but today employs only 78 at its plant--are typical of any start-up in a tough economy. "How many people start electric car companies?" he said in an interview. "How many do it in a recession?"

Ken Cuccinelli has seized on the GreenTech saga in an attempt to attack McAuliffe's chief asset as a candidate, his business acumen.

Ken Cuccinelli: Opposes tailpipe emission rules for CO2 reductions

Only 0.05 degrees by 2050? Is that really what the EPA was claiming these rules would do? The EPA's massive document on greenhouse gas emission standards, page 4-101, said: "EPA modeled the anticipated potential effect on climate change and found that in year 2100, the rule would reduce temperature increases by 0.006-0.015 degrees Celsius," based on pushing fuel efficiency from 33.8 mpg up to 39.5 mpg.

Those Celsius figures translate to a range from 0.011 to 0.027 degrees Fahrenheit. He actually erred in the agency's favor by overstating the size of projected reductions. He also missed the date, but again erred in the EPA's favor. Because his mistakes were minor and in the EPA's favor, we rate his claim as True.