Malkin Column: Obama's Algae Racket
Pond scum stinks. And so do the Obama administration's enormous, taxpayer-funded "investments" in politically connected biofuel companies. While the president embarks on a green rehabilitation tour this week to quell growing public outrage about big green boondoggles, the White House continues to cultivate a cozy algae racket.
Obama's promotion of algae as a fuel source at a campaign speech in Miami last month caught the nation's attention. But algae companies have been banking on administration support from Day One. In December 2008, when the White House announced the nomination of Energy Secretary Steven Chu, the CEO of Florida-based biofuels startup Algenol, Paul Woods, exulted to Time magazine: "You see this smile on my face? It's not going away. Everyone is really excited by this."
The next year, Woods and Algenol — dubbed "Obama's favorite algae company" by Forbes magazine — racked up $25 million in federal stimulus grants from Chu. Say cheese.
Yet another algae-based biofuels developer, Sapphire Energy, has absorbed $105 million in stimulus funds and loan guarantees even as doubts about the practicality, efficiency and viability of pond-scum fuels multiply. Sapphire's CEO, Jason Pyle, has donated exclusively to Democratic campaigns, candidates and committees — and his company's website reads like a satellite White House communications office:
— "President Obama Announces $14 Million Funding Opportunity To Develop Transportation Fuels from Algae";
— "President Obama's Secure Energy Blueprint — Industry Reaction";
— "Obama Defends Energy Policy, Hitting Back At Presidential Candidates."
Another prominent DOE recipient in the world of blue-green sludge? San Francisco-based Solazyme. The manufacturer of algae-based renewable fuels has scooped up more than $21 million in federal stimulus grants and contracts. Solazyme's ties to the White House and the Democratic establishment in Washington are myriad. As blogger J.E. Dyer at HotAir.com (which I founded in 2006 and sold in 2010) reported in December, Solazyme's "strategic advisers" include TJ Glauthier — a member of the Obama presidential transition team who just happened to work "on the energy-sector portion of the 2009 stimulus bill."
Andrew Stiles of the Washington Free Beacon writes that Glauthier:
"serves on the board of EnerNOC Inc., a company that provides demand-response services to electric utility firms. EnerNOC won a $10 million contract with the Department of Energy Resources in 2010 despite being underbid by competitors, the Boston Herald reported. Glauthier also served on the board of SunRun, a solar financing company that received a $6.7 million federal grant in 2010."
And in total, Glauthier adds, "Solazyme officials including Glauthier have contributed at least $360,000 to Democrats since 2007."
Wait, that's not all. The head of Solazyme's Washington lobbying office is Drew Littman, former chief of staff for Democratic Sen. Al Franken. Littman's old pal, entrenched D.C. lobbyist and Obama appointee Michael Meehan, feted Littman earlier this year and bragged that "we couldn't be more thrilled to be working on a daily basis with Drew and the Solazyme team."
Thanks to one of President Obama's executive orders, Solazyme secured a $12 million contract with the U.S. Navy to unload hundreds of thousands of gallons of biofuel — priced at an estimated four to seven times the normal cost of regular jet fuel.
This self-sustaining crony ecosystem, powered by administrative fiat and wealth redistribution, gives new meaning to the phrase "green crude."
Michelle Malkin is the author of "Culture of Corruption: Obama and his Team of Tax Cheats, Crooks & Cronies" (Regnery 2010). Her e-mail address is malkinblog@gmail.com.
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Comments
Michelle, your post needs a graphic
Submitted by Blonde on Wed, 03/21/2012 - 3:35pm.
Bob Keyser is always happy to help out....and THIS is the perfect one for your blog post.
Handy Reference Guide to Obama's Gaffes and Goofs ~ Currently Numbering 200 (and Counting)
So there it is
Submitted by jon_torlin on Wed, 03/21/2012 - 4:33pm.
Well color me surprised.......oooh was that racist? I don't care.
On one hand, I wish I could say I was surprised by this kind of deviousness on how they were going to screw things up with the oil/refinery industry, but on the other hand, I had no idea how much they were planning even this level of outright nuttiness of using algae versus anything else as opposed to oil.
I could see it as "pulling it out their a$$" as of recently, but for them to have been thinking about it for the last 3-4 years??
If this doesn't scare the crap out of anyone, I don't know what wille because it shows the level of what this bogus potus would sink to in order to destroy this country by (among other things) throwing money at energy companies that don't have a prayer of surviving a normal business climate. Put simply, many people already knew that "green energy" is a dead end(always has been) but sinking money into should be considered financially criminal. If it wasn't before, it should be now especially after it's STILL happening after the Solyndra scandal(again, among other things).
God I wish people were smarter about this energy crap.
-Jon
I would like to see the algae
Submitted by Dan The Man 2 on Wed, 03/21/2012 - 9:01pm.
I would like to see the algae green energy and how they are going to accomplish it. I am still for private enterprise to fund such ventures and the laws of supply and demand control the operation. Look at biodiesel and the success those people have. I think they are competing w/o subsidies or tax breaks. Biodiesel.
Government "logic" is an oxymoron.
Submitted by CobraMan on Thu, 03/22/2012 - 2:21pm.
It's amazing that, while spending hundreds of millions of dollar in "preventing" the spread of Asian Milfoil in America's waterways, and an additional hundreds of millions of dollars in research in how to "eradicate' this "invasive" species, no one in the federal government is promoting the commercial harvesting of milfoil and it's use as a biofuel!
But, hay, look, we can use algae, someday, to produce methane, and, what, use that "green fuel" to run the various government Milfoil eradication programs? So, let's spend a few hundreds million dollars each year in research on turning algae into biofuel, but not milfoil! Right, Right?
Hay, idiots, we already have various government local, state, and federal programs that harvest hundreds of thousands of tons of milfoil every year, and it's not hard to use existing technology to extract common vegetable oil (all that is required is to press it and filter the extracted oils) from that Milfoil (which, by the way, is what is also know as "green diesel") and use the remainder as animal feed or fertilizer, so WHY aren't you promoting that Milfoil as a renewable energy source? The technology, as well as the "crop" itself, already exists! We just need to, you know, UTILIZE IT! I mean, really, that milfoil is a hardy, rapidly growing plant that grows in just about any body of water, which is exactly what you claim is what is needed as a renewable energy source! So, let's USE it, ok?
But, in a perfect example of the "wisdom" of Government, we have to spend untold amount of tax dollars and manpower in an futile effort to eradicate it altogether, right? And wny is this? It's because the Government, via the EPA, has declared it as a harmful, invasive species that MUST be eradicated, at all costs. If you so much as have a single speck of that plant on anything that may, or may not, "allow" it to "spread," you WILL be fined!
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Unless you're a fetus. The US Supreme Court
Or Anwar al-Awlaki.