Government Grant + Green Research + Green Start Up + Campaign Donation = Government Loan to Billionaire in Green Start Up gets Government Contract
In 2012, the Navy paid $424 per gallon for biofuel derived from algae. That same year, in another much-hyped example of the Great Green Fleet, it spent about $27 per gallon for 450,000 gallons of biofuel.
One of the companies that got a lucrative biofuel contract from the military was the San Francisco–based Solazyme Inc According to the Congressional Research Service, in 2009, Solazyme got a $223,000 contract for 1,500 gallons of algae-based motor fuel. That works out to $149 per gallon. Perhaps it’s a coincidence, but Solazyme has also been a big donor to Democratic causes, giving some $300,000 to Democratic candidates and committees. The company has also donated between $100,000 and $250,000 to the Bill, Hillary, and Chelsea Clinton Foundation.
(Not an attack on Trump or an endorsement for Cruz, just an observation)
You know it when you see it. I don’t have a particular stance on ethanol subsidies (RFS)* but if the feds mandate it, it’s probably a bad and expensive idea, but that’s not the point of this post.
Donald Trump said Tuesday that federal regulators should increase the amount of ethanol blended into the nation’s gasoline supply.
Speaking at an event hosted by the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association, Trump, a real estate mogul and the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, said the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ought to follow the ethanol volumes Congress set in 2007.
“The EPA should ensure that biofuel … blend levels match the statutory level set by Congress under the [renewable fuel standard],” Trump said Here…
When Donald Trump calls for more ethanol subsidies while he is in Iowa it’s obvious he is pandering for votes in the Iowa Caucuses. I guess that’s why I don’t trust The Donald, like a normal politician he will say or do anything to get elected.
Seems like the same-same we already have in Washington not something a true champion of conservative principles would do, just a champion of the people….in that state….for votes….and endorsements.
If this sounds familiar, it’s because it is. Here….
2002: Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) signs a letter declaring that the ethanol subsidies were “equivalent to a new tax” on gasoline and that there is “no sound public policy reason for mandating the use of ethanol.” Five years later, she visits Iowa as a candidate for president. While there, she announces that the U.S. needs to work on “limiting our dependence on foreign oil. And we have a perfect example right here in Iowa about how it can work with all of the ethanol that’s being produced here.”29
2003: Senator John McCain (R-AZ) says: “Plain and simple, the ethanol program is highway robbery perpetrated on the American public by Congress.” Three years later, McCain visits Iowa as a candidate for president. While there, he calls ethanol “a vital alternative energy source not only because of our dependency on foreign oil but its greenhouse gas reduction effects.”30
2005: Senator John Thune (R-SD) says that ethanol “reduces our dependence on foreign sources of oil and is an important weapon in the War on Terror.”31
2006: Actor Robert Redford says that he supports corn ethanol production: “It’s cheaper. It’s cleaner. It’s renewable. And you know what? It’s American because we grow it.”32
2007: In a speech announcing his plan to run for the White House, Barack Obama declares his support for “homegrown, alternative fuels like ethanol.”
That’s some pretty lousy company he’s keeping, but one politician is standing his ground.
However, Sen. Ted Cruz has broken ranks to criticize farmers’ welfare and he holds a narrow lead over Donald Trump in the upcoming caucuses. (Sen. Rand Paul also flunks the ethanol lobby’s test, but he remains far back in the race.) Cruz’s political strength has dismayed ethanol makers. The group America’s Renewable Future, whose state director is the governor’s son, is deploying 22 staffers in the presidential campaign. Some 50,000 people have signed up, saying that they will only back a friend of the ethanol lobby.
Give Ted Cruz his due, ethanol appears to be one issue on which he put principle before politics. Irrespective of his presidential ambitions, we all would benefit if Iowans engaged in a little political regicide against King Ethanol. here…
Just sayin’.
*RFS: Ethanol subsidies began in 1978 and used to include a high tariff and benefit from generous tax credits, both of which expired at the end of 2011. However, the Renewable Fuel Standard, which requires blending ethanol with gasoline, operates as a huge industry subsidy. Robert Bryce of the Manhattan Institute figured the requirement cost drivers more than $10 billion since 2007.
The Department of State recently discovered “thousands” of previously unreviewed documents that relate to Hillary Clinton and the Benghazi attack, according to a watchdog group that has been suing the department to release public records from Clinton’s tenure. Keep reading…
Effectively three years of stonewalling by the State department. Until you start firing people for withholding this information, nothing will change.
I have a suggestion…..
….it would only take one and the birds would start singing.
Hillary admitted to her family, Libya, and Egypt that the Benghazi attacks were done by terrorists. It’s in her emails, it’s beyond doubt.
She said it was a you-tube video, so did Obama.
They lied because there was an election in two months.
They lied to protect their political ambitions.
They lied to the families of the victims.
They lied to the American people, and apologized to Muslims around the world for the video.
What more do you need to do to be removed from office and sent to prison?
The rocket scientists Obama and Hillary get dressed down by Putin, it’s up to you too figure out who is right….sadly, I am pretty sure I know. This is what happens when you elect morons to high office.
“Instead of the triumph of democracy and progress, we got violence, poverty and social disaster — and nobody cares a bit about human rights, including the right to life. I cannot help asking those who have forced that situation:Do you realize what you have done?” _Vladimir Putin
Barack Obama supported regime change in Egypt, Yemen, Tunisia, Libya and Syria. Today the Middle East is a bastion of Islamist violence, poverty, and human suffering.
Russian President Vladimir Putin addressed the UN General Assembly today in New York City.
Putin lectured Barack Obama on the Arab Spring disaster, something Obama supported. Here…
