What a fool believes - Cellulosic Ethanol
Turns out to be a great idea -- sign here to invest in this wonderful
snake oil gasoline alternative...
From
Edmunds Green Car Advisor:
EPA Put Faith in Fraud, Now Cellulosic Goals Falling Short - Very Short
Here's one for the "every cloud..." file, or perhaps the "caveat emptor" file. Take your pick.
When the EPA recently issued a report anticipating 100 million gallons of cellulosic ethanol production in the U.S. by 2010, it was including 70 million gallons from an Alabama company called Cello Energy.
That's 70 percent of the total U.S. production from one relatively small company, per the EPA.
Bad Move
The government didn't factor in ethanol fraud.
Turns out the Cello was just found guilty in a federal court in Alabama of civil fraud for lying to a major investor about the state of its ability to make ethanol from grass and other woody, non-food materials.
The jury ordered Cello principals to pay $10.4 million in damages after witnesses testified that the "cellulosic" fuel the company was showing to investors was actually fuel derived entirely from petroleum.
Cello apparently has one plant capable of annual production of 20 million gallons of biofuel - if its system really works - and three that it was planning to build and that the EPA credited with 50 million gallons of cellulosic fuel by 2010.
Emphasis mine -- when you are talking about this kind of quantity and this kind of money, wouldn't it make sense to have an independent and bonded laboratory run some tests? I sure would require this if it was my money being invested but, it was just taxpayer money funding that subsidy and if we blow it, there is always more.
Idiots...
Posted by DaveH at July 21, 2009 11:58 AM
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