Posted on 07/11/2012 5:51:11 PM PDT by Nachum
A venture capital executive with ties to defunct solar company Solyndra has been hired as the new chief of the Defense Department program heading up the Pentagon’s renewable energy push.
Arati Prabhakar, a former partner at U.S. Venture Partners, a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm that backed Solyndra, has been named the new director of DoD’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Prabhakaker will administer DARPA’s roughly $3 billion budget, some of which will likely continue funding projects in renewable energy.
While there is no indication that Prabhakar was involved with Solyndra during her time at USVP, her appointment to DARPA may rekindle allegations of cronyism in the administration’s dealings with Solyndra and other green energy companies.
DARPA itself has been scrutinized for some of its green energy deals. Former chief Regina Dugan was investigated by federal watchdogs after her family’s company won $400,000 in DARPA contracts while she headed the division.
DARPA was also responsible for the $21.8 million deal with biofuel company Solazyme, inviting further scrutiny. A member of Solazyme’s corporate board sat on President Obama’s transition team, where he helped form renewable energy policy.
Given the large pricetag of the Solazyme deal – the Navy paid $26 per gallon for Solazyme fuels – its merits mention that Prabhakar stresses the importance of relying on alternative energy despite its admittedly high costs to American taxpayers.
The list, Ping
Let me know if you would like to be on or off the ping list
THE AMERICAN PEOPLE HAVE GOT TO WIN THE ELECTION IN NOVEMBER!!!!
By the time he takes over DARPA they will have a great Wikipedia entry and nice looking picture of him (he'll be clean and articulate). His bio on the official government website will be awesome, full of degrees that are meaningless.
If you play ball with Obama, you get the story like all good reporters that toe the line do. If you're a good political stooge, like Shinseki (head of VA), you'll get a senior executive post. It's a merit based system more transparent than ever!
Totally different worlds.
Arati Prabhakar (born 1959) headed NIST from 1993 to 1997. She earned her PhD in applied physics from Caltech in 1984 and was the first female to head the institute.[1][2] She is a member of the board of directors of SRI International.[3] On July 30, 2012, she will become the head of DARPA.[4]
Prabhakar immigrated to the United States from India at age three. She has a bachelors degree from Texas Tech University.[5]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arati_Prabhakar
One big happy family.
“Given the large pricetag of the Solazyme deal – the Navy paid $26 per gallon for Solazyme fuels – its merits mention that Prabhakar stresses the importance of relying on alternative energy despite its admittedly high costs to American taxpayers.”
($26 per gallon is incorrect!)
Navy Takes Biofuels Campaign Into Uncharted Waters
http://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/archive/2011/January/Pages/NavyTakesBiofuelsIntoUnchartedWaters.aspx
Since 2006, the Defense Logistics Agency has procured more than 36 million gallons of ethanol-and-petroleum blends for the military. The Navy in September ordered an additional 150,000 gallons of algae-based fuel from San Francisco company Solazyme. The new agreement is seven times the size of the initial 20,000-gallon contract awarded last year. The Navy is paying big bucks for these fuels.
The service consumes an average of 1.2 billion gallons of petroleum each year at a cost of $3 billion — about $2.50 per gallon. The service paid Solazyme $8.5 million to provide just 20,000 gallons of algae-based fuel —
$425 per gallon.
At that rate, it would cost the Navy some $142.8 billion for the 8 million barrels of biofuel needed to meet its 2020 goal.
Camelina-based fuel is a bit cheaper but still more expensive than petroleum. In September 2009 the DLA’s defense energy support center paid Montana’s Sustainable Oils $2.7 million for 40,000 gallons of camelina-based fuel. That comes to about $67.50 per gallon.
I can’t believe that she is in control of another multi billion dollar budget after her company ripped us off..
And there isn’t anybody else qualified even more qualified than her?
She’s probably a “wise” (Fill In The Blank) with a compelling life story. Compelling life stories are really popular right now with the white commie libs in the DemocRAT Party.
It’s a she.
...................Compelling life stories are really popular right now with the white commie libs in the DemocRAT Party....................
And it helps that her skin color is darker than the average white woman!!
“Typical” white woman. Barry calls them “typical” white women.
gee... let me guess... another spy to help export any military advances to china
awesome
at best, he’ll just be rabidly incompetent ... at worst... well....
DARPA is about a close to venture capital operation as you can get in the DoD or the Fed gov.
But it still isn't actually close.
If you are a technical whiz, then inside DARPA, or in some actual venture capital enterprise in the real world, things might be very similar. But for an executive, things are very different. A VC exec needs to raise money, schmooze rich people who can smell BS a mile away, and appear to have profits just around the corner. Within DoD, things just aren't done that way.
The key skill: can you follow a rigid bureaucracy? Sure, your tech people don't have to -- they are the whiz kids. But the management? Believe me, it's allllll about the bureaucracy. VC execs live outside that world.
The only worse choice for this super secret, sensitive position than Ms Arati Prabhakar would be the head of the Red Chinese government spy agency. I guess he was too obvious as a threat that even the main stream media might flag it so Obama went with Prabhakar.
She, he, it, make no difference anymore. Maybe the “he/she” will come to the office married to her dog for all I know. It’s America in 2012.
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