Monday, July 16, 2012

PEU Jet Fuel


Reuters reported on the current version of the Pentagon's $100 hammer.

The Air Force bought 11,000 gallons of alcohol-to-jet fuel from Gevo Inc, a Colorado biofuels company, at $59 a gallon in a program aimed at proving that new alternative fuels can be used reliably in military aircraft..
Gevo Inc. is publicly traded but major shareholders include private equity underwriters:



PEU's profiting from Gevo's IPO include Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Green Fund and Khosla Ventures.  They took Gevo public in 2011 at $15 per share.  It closed trading today at $4.39. 



Reuters noted the political-corporate connections, but left out explicit PEU links:
Some companies involved in the push to build a biofuels industry have connections to prominent Democratic backers, further raising Republican skepticism of the effort.

Vinod Khosla, whose venture capital firm says it played a central role in funding and developing Gevo's business strategy, has given campaign contributions of $474,534 since 1996, 86 percent of which has gone to Democrats, according to data compiled by opensecrets.org. Khosla's firm owned a 27 percent stake in Gevo as of the company's March federal filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Khosla also has close ties to another venture capital firm whose team includes Al Gore, the former vice president and Democratic presidential candidate in 2000.  Gevo did not immediately respond to queries about what role, if any, Khosla played in helping the firm secure government grants or contracts.

It's America's Government-Corporate Monstrosity,  Eisenhower's Military-Industrial Complex on trillions in federal budget steroids.  One has to win the election to mobilize government business to benefactors.  Red and Blue love PEU.

Update 5-29-14:  Billionaire Vinod Khosla asserts his oceanfront California property goes through any formerly public beach and into the tidelands.