One of Obama’s green energy barons strikes again! Just recently, an ethanol factory in Georgia went belly up, leaving the taxpayers high and dry. And of course, it was one of the Anointed One’s campaign bundlers who brokered the deal. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported the following:
The failed Range Fuels wood-to-ethanol factory in southeastern Georgia that sucked up $65 million in federal and state tax dollars was sold Tuesday for pennies on the dollar to another bio-fuel maker with equally grand plans to transform the alternative energy world.
LanzaTech, a New Zealand-based biofuel company, paid $5.1 million for the plant in Soperton. Its main financial backer: Vinod Khosla, a California entrepreneur who also bankrolled Range Fuels, and helped secure its government loans, before Range went bust last year.
LanzaTech hasn't received the same type of loans, but the company has received $7million from the U.S. departments of Energy and Transportation to assist in the development of alternative fuels.
Isn’t that beautiful? Vinod Khosla screwed us twice on the same company. First he secures government backing for one company. It fails. Then he gets the taxpayers to help finance another venture of his; and uses that company to buy the other for pennies on the dollar! That’s amazing! And he’s going to get away with it! Congress should be investigating this. If this isn’t a crime, it sure as hell should be.
Peter Schweizer documented the machinations of Vinod Khosla in his book Throw Them All Out. Here is an excerpt:
Billionaire Vinod Khosla was also a big winner in the taxpayer-funded giveaway. Khosla had been the head of Obama’s India Policy Team during the 2008 election and contributed to Democratic candidates. He was a major investor in Coskata, a relatively new company whose goal is to make fuel out of waste. Coskata received a $250 million loan guarantee from the federal government. Company executives have been quite clear that one important measure of corporate success is the amount of “government money we attract.” Khosla’s Nordic Windpower was approved for another $16 million for a wind power manufacturing facility in Idaho. And his company AltaRock secured $25 million in stimulus money.
The failed Range Fuels wood-to-ethanol factory in southeastern Georgia that sucked up $65 million in federal and state tax dollars was sold Tuesday for pennies on the dollar to another bio-fuel maker with equally grand plans to transform the alternative energy world.
LanzaTech, a New Zealand-based biofuel company, paid $5.1 million for the plant in Soperton. Its main financial backer: Vinod Khosla, a California entrepreneur who also bankrolled Range Fuels, and helped secure its government loans, before Range went bust last year.
LanzaTech hasn't received the same type of loans, but the company has received $7million from the U.S. departments of Energy and Transportation to assist in the development of alternative fuels.
Isn’t that beautiful? Vinod Khosla screwed us twice on the same company. First he secures government backing for one company. It fails. Then he gets the taxpayers to help finance another venture of his; and uses that company to buy the other for pennies on the dollar! That’s amazing! And he’s going to get away with it! Congress should be investigating this. If this isn’t a crime, it sure as hell should be.
Peter Schweizer documented the machinations of Vinod Khosla in his book Throw Them All Out. Here is an excerpt:
Billionaire Vinod Khosla was also a big winner in the taxpayer-funded giveaway. Khosla had been the head of Obama’s India Policy Team during the 2008 election and contributed to Democratic candidates. He was a major investor in Coskata, a relatively new company whose goal is to make fuel out of waste. Coskata received a $250 million loan guarantee from the federal government. Company executives have been quite clear that one important measure of corporate success is the amount of “government money we attract.” Khosla’s Nordic Windpower was approved for another $16 million for a wind power manufacturing facility in Idaho. And his company AltaRock secured $25 million in stimulus money.
But that’s not the end of Vinod Khosla’s government sponsored venturism. As of January 1st, Congress allowed import tariffs on Brazilian ethanol to expire, along with domestic ethanol subsidies. And guess who is invested in Brazilian ethanol?
All good reasons why Reichstul was able to attract serious money. In addition to Case, he enlisted green-fuel advocate and Sun Microsystems (SUNW ) co-founder Vinod Khosla, supermarket magnate Ron Burkle, film producer Steve Bing, and former World Bank President James D. Wolfensohn to create Brazilian Renewable Energy Co., or Brenco. The Americans put a total of $31 million into the company, while Brazilians invested $20 million. In March, the group raised nearly $150 million more from U.S. and European investors. Brenco plans to spend $2.2 billion to plant 1.5 million acres of sugarcane, build 10 ethanol mills, and churn out 1 billion gallons a year by 2014, largely for export. Reichstul says he aims to "unlock demand" for the fuel across Europe, Asia, and the U.S
And unlock they did. In 2007, the federal government mandated the following:
In the name of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and reducing America’s dependence on foreign oil, the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA) mandates that we need to consume 36 billion gallons of ethanol by 2022. EISA also contains a mandate within the mandate for advanced biofuels, with the applicable volume of cellulosic ethanol set at 250 million gallons this year, 500 million gallons in 2012, and ultimately hitting 16 billion gallons in 2022.
The robber barons of the 19th century would stand aghast at the shamelessness of Obama and his green baron cronies.
Source: http://www.ajc.com/business/georgia-ethanol-plant-sold-1289567.html
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_25/b4039079.htm
http://blog.heritage.org/2011/08/17/the-ethanol-mandate-needs-to-go/
http://battakiran.wordpress.com/2008/07/22/vinod-khosla-smartest-guy-in-silicon-valley-%E2%80%93-by-richard-shaffer/
All good reasons why Reichstul was able to attract serious money. In addition to Case, he enlisted green-fuel advocate and Sun Microsystems (SUNW ) co-founder Vinod Khosla, supermarket magnate Ron Burkle, film producer Steve Bing, and former World Bank President James D. Wolfensohn to create Brazilian Renewable Energy Co., or Brenco. The Americans put a total of $31 million into the company, while Brazilians invested $20 million. In March, the group raised nearly $150 million more from U.S. and European investors. Brenco plans to spend $2.2 billion to plant 1.5 million acres of sugarcane, build 10 ethanol mills, and churn out 1 billion gallons a year by 2014, largely for export. Reichstul says he aims to "unlock demand" for the fuel across Europe, Asia, and the U.S
And unlock they did. In 2007, the federal government mandated the following:
In the name of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and reducing America’s dependence on foreign oil, the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA) mandates that we need to consume 36 billion gallons of ethanol by 2022. EISA also contains a mandate within the mandate for advanced biofuels, with the applicable volume of cellulosic ethanol set at 250 million gallons this year, 500 million gallons in 2012, and ultimately hitting 16 billion gallons in 2022.
The robber barons of the 19th century would stand aghast at the shamelessness of Obama and his green baron cronies.
Source: http://www.ajc.com/business/georgia-ethanol-plant-sold-1289567.html
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_25/b4039079.htm
http://blog.heritage.org/2011/08/17/the-ethanol-mandate-needs-to-go/
http://battakiran.wordpress.com/2008/07/22/vinod-khosla-smartest-guy-in-silicon-valley-%E2%80%93-by-richard-shaffer/
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