The headline of the auto task force is that the feds are laying the groundwork for a public GM bankruptcy (in his news conference this morning, new GM CEO Fritz Henderson makes it clear that is what the company is preparing for). But the subhead is that President Obama’s vision of a new industry driven by plug-in electric cars is poppycock.

Obama has been outspoken as a candidate and president that automakers can only become profitable again — and drive America’s independence from oil — by converting the country to electric cars. The president has even made it a goal (soon to be a mandate?) to “put one million plug-in hybrid vehicles on America ’s roads by 2015.” GM has encouraged this vision by pouring millions into the development of its plug-in electric Chevy Volt and parading it as Exhibit A in its case for why taxpayers need to bridge it to a new era of profitability and “clean” transportation.

But the task force, in its “GM Determination of Viability” report, makes it clear that plug-in electrics will not make GM profitable. “While the Volt holds promise, it is currently projected to be much more expensive than its gasoline-fueled peers and will likely need substantial reductions in manufacturing cost in order to become commercially viable.”

In other words, the president’s vision of a green Detroit auto industry is incompatible with his declaration that the industry must become viable in return for taxpayer money. Detroit can be profitable or politically correct. It cannot be both.