Beam me to Planet Gore !
Posted on 02/08/2011 1:34:01 AM PST by lbryce
To turn wood chips into ethanol fuel, George W. Bush's Department of Energy in February 2007 announced a $76 million grant to Range Fuels for a cutting-edge refinery. A few months later, the refinery opened in the piney woods of Treutlen County, Ga., as the taxpayers of Georgia piled on another $6 million. In 2008, the ethanol plant was the first beneficiary of the Biorefinery Assistance Program, pocketing a loan for $80 million guaranteed by the U.S. taxpayers.
Last month, the refinery closed down, having failed to squeeze even a drop of ethanol out of its pine chips.
The Soperton, Ga., ethanol plant is another blemish on ethanol's already tarnished image, but more broadly, it is cautionary tale about the elusive nature of "green jobs" and the folly of the government's efforts at "investing" -- as President Obama puts it -- in new technologies.
Late in the Bush administration, corn-based ethanol started to get a bad rap. Corn for ethanol was crowding out other crops, and food prices were soaring. Mexicans rioted as tortilla prices spiked. So Bush started talking up "advanced biofuels" including "cellulosic ethanol": roughly, ethanol distilled from plants that were not also food products. Bush mentioned wood chips and switchgrass in two consecutive State of the Union addresses
Georgia politicians saw an opportunity here. "The Saudi Arabia of Pine Trees" became an unofficial state motto among Peach State politicians, and Gov. Sonny Perdue declared, "I'm confident the bioenergy industry and sector is going to be a cornerstone of the new Georgia."
Amid all this hopeful talk by politicians, there were naysayers among the scientists. One Nobel Prize-winning physicist talked to the New York Times about these startups trying to turn logging waste into fuel.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonexaminer.com ...
Add that to the solar panel company in MA that took state subsidies and closed up to move to China a week or two ago. Grab that redistributed Green Commie cash and run.
No problems mate!
In Texas, the enviro’s subsidized windmills, but did NOT allow new high-voltage power lines to be built:
So over 10,000 Megawatts of windmills were built using tax incentives and early depreciation in subsidized factories - mostly overseas. (The US labor was almost all erection and transporation.)
But only 6500 Megawatts of windmill power can be hooked up to the grid through the local overhead powerlines. The rest cannot leave the pedestals.
Someone sold Bush’s R&D folks a bill of goods. One of his worse oversights as president. This thing didn’t have the magic microbes yet.
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Green-Energy Plant Sucks Up Subsidies, Then Goes Bust
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Obama wants to enrich his “green buddies”.
And knows they’ll close their “green” companies just like in Spain.
Killing something like 2 jobs for every 1 private industry jobs.
I’m sure some of that stolen money will end up in the coffers of
The Democratic Party.
Compliments of the tax dollars of the average Joe/Josephine.
B@$tards.
And I read about a group of so called investors( scam artists) that wanted to build a electric car company in cold,bus Ohio, if only the tax payers would give them 500000 million start. Let them spend their own damn money!!!
If you want to run a vehicle on wood chips try one of these:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pw22NSKi38A
The loan guarantee is the result of efforts between the USDA Office of Rural Development, AgSouth Farm Credit, ACA and Range Fuels. AgSouth Farm Credit, ACA, a leader in agricultural and rural loans and part of the Farm Credit System, was the lead lender on the loan, and Silicon Valley Bank and Morgan Keegan & Company, Inc. helped facilitate the financing of this bond transaction. A conditional commitment to provide this loan note guarantee was first issued by the USDA on January 16, 2009. http://www.rangefuels.com/range-fuels-closes-on-80-million-loan-guaranteed-by-u.s.-department-of-agriculture.html
This’d be funny if it wasn’t for the waste of taxpayer money. Problem is this entire ‘green economy’ is on the back of taxpayers.
Range Fuels of Soperton, Georgia...
I spent half a day there on a job interview while it was just starting construction; quite a strange place; the whole experience was somewhat surreal.
The top man was a weird charismatic guy from out in California that was a quasi-scientist type with the personality of a used car salesman on steroids.
The whole thing sounded like a scam to me; glad that I didn’t get the job.
I wouldn’t call Al Gore charismatic.
Range Fuels lays off workers in Colorado, Georgia
By Kris Bevill | January 11, 2011
Range Fuels Inc. began constructing its cellulosic biofuels production facility, including the warehouse shown above, in Soperton, Ga., in 2008.
PHOTO: RANGE FUELS INC.Broomfield, Colo.-based cellulosic biofuels producer Range Fuels Inc. confirmed it has laid off employees at both its headquarters in Broomfield and its production facility in Soperton, Ga., but is not releasing details on the number of layoffs or what factors led to the decision to reduce the company’s workforce. “A handful of people in Colorado and Georgia were impacted by the layoffs,” the company said in a statement to EPM, declining to elaborate further. http://www.ethanolproducer.com/articles/7388/range-fuels-lays-off-workers-in-colorado-georgia
The USDA announced Jan. 20 it has approved $405 million in loan guarantees through the 9003 section of the 2008 Farm Bill to support the commercialization of cellulosic ethanol at facilities owned by Coskata Inc., Enerkem Corp. and Ineos New Planet BioEnergy LLC. http://www.ethanolproducer.com/articles/7433/usda-approves-loan-guarantees-for-3-cellulosic-projects January 05, 2011
INEOS Bio receives $75 million USDA loan guarantee
BY INEOS Bio
INEOS Bio and its joint venture partner, New Planet Energy, have received a conditional commitment for a $75 million loan guarantee from the USDA’s 9003 Biorefinery Assistance Program.
No, not Al Gore, the guy behind it is named Vinod Khosla,
he was a co-founder of SUN Micro-systems, I believe.
Here is another story about this; seems they are just taking a pause while they re-group and try to con someone else out of some more bucks:
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http://www.gpb.org/news/2011/01/12/range-fuels-plant-needs-more-money
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Range Fuels Plant Needs More Money
SOPERTON,Ga. —
A South Georgia plant that turns wood waste into fuel is stopping production right after they make their first batch of ethanol. Range Fuels in Soperton is also laying off most of its employees.
In 2007 the Colorado-based company broke ground on its Georgia facility in the heart of timber country. At the time it was supposed to be the first plant in the country to make so-called “cellulosic ethanol.”
Since then they’ve received 320-million dollars in state, federal and private money. But now they need more.
Range Fuel technical advisor Bud Klepper says this first run of ethanol is part of an agreement with the federal government.
“This run campaign is to demonstrate that facet of the technology and when we’re done doing that then we’ll shut down.”
Klepper says they plan to keep four employees at the plant while they raise more money and work through some technical issues.
The elite looting the people. Raise that debt ceiling!
More proof of the stupidity of government programs. Green energy is a boondoogle that only makes democrats rich and everyone else poor.
When will we learn?
The benefits of Earmrks for the connected few.
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