Georgia Cellulosic Ethanol Plant Backed By Bush Administration Fails- Got $156M In Federal Money

[hatrack]

Range Fuels, Inc. a cellulosic ethanol company backed by as much as $156 million in U.S. loans and grants from President George W. Bush’s administration, is being forced by the government to liquidate its only factory after failing to produce the fuel. The closely held company, which counts Vinod Khosla, a venture capitalist and Sun Microsystems Inc. co-founder, as an initial investor, shuttered the factory in Soperton, Georgia, in January after not delivering on its promise to convert woodchips into ethanol, which was intended to help the U.S. become less dependent on foreign oil.

Soperton’s failure comes after Solyndra LLC, a solar-panel maker that received a $535 million federal loan guarantee, filed for bankruptcy in September. The ethanol project received $46.3 million of a $76 million grant from the Energy Department and half of an $80 million loan from the Agriculture Department, according to each department.

“We are disappointed that this company did not succeed and we will be working on behalf of the American people to protect the federal government’s interest in the loan, which was announced by the previous administration,” Justin Dejong, a spokesman for the Agriculture Department in Washington, said today in an e-mailed statement.

While the Solyndra guarantee won approval under President Barack Obama’s administration, the Soperton project was initiated as part of President Bush’s push to aid alternatives to corn as a source for ethanol. The loan guarantee was announced on Jan. 19, 2009, the final day of the Bush administration, according to an Agriculture Department document.

EDIT

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-12-02/range-fuels-cellulosic-ethanol-plant-fails-as-u-s-pulls-plug.html

[Mojorabbit]

1. Are any of these

alternative energy investments doing well? I would love to know as we desperately need some of them to prosper.

[seeviewonder]

2. I work for a biodiesel company in the midwest.

We are doing very well and we take very little in the way of subsidies/grants. The main factor driving our prosperity is the RFS2 requirement by the EPA.

[KalicoKitty]

3. Mascoma signs $80M Cellulosic Ethanol Plant Deal with DOE in Kinross, Michigan

This is an article from last December

Mascoma, the renewable fuels company, will receive up to $80 million in Department of Energy funding for construction of a commercial-scale hardwood cellulosic ethanol facility.


http://gas2.org/2011/12/16/mascoma-signs-80m-cellulosic-ethanol-plant-deal-with-doe-in-kinross-michigan/

[arachadillo]

4. Update

Range Fuels, Inc. a cellulosic ethanol company backed by as much as $156 million in U.S. loans and grants from President George W. Bush’s administration, is being forced by the government to liquidate its only factory after failing to produce the fuel. The closely held company, which counts Vinod Khosla, a venture capitalist and Sun Microsystems Inc. co-founder, as an initial investor, shuttered the factory in Soperton, Georgia, in January after not delivering on its promise to convert woodchips into ethanol, which was intended to help the U.S. become less dependent on foreign oil.

Thanks for the update....

Last time I looked into the issue, http://greennature.com/article87.html">Mow Your Gas, Range Fuels was one of five separate cellulosic ethanol pilot programs created under this plan.

I re-checked the range fuel link and now it 301s (a technical web term) to a CO politician.

It's time to update that article, and include the most recent algal based fuel pilot plants.

Speaking of failures in GA, I seem to recall that many of the GA banks also failed at the same time, due primarily to providing bad loans for the FL construction business.