Two Year Old Biodiesel Plant In Keokuk Sold For $55,000

The Des Moines Register had a column today written by some guy who still has an AOL email address. Remember those? Wow! Who still has an AOL.com email address in 2010, other than your neighbor's dead grandmother?

Sorry, I digress.

So the DMR had a column today written by some guy (Al Moander) who was an investor with the Tri-City Energy Bio-Diesel plant in Keokuk. He was talking about how the plant was sold recently at auction for $55,000 and that Nevada Senator Harry Reid basically screwed the industry by not extending some Federal tax credit for bio-diesel.

How's that Hope And Change working out for you, Green Jobbers?

Wow, $55,000? I wonder how much it cost to build.

From a December 21, 2007 story in the Keokuk Daily Gate:

Keokuk will have two new renewable fuel-related industries in town, both of them the product of local entrepreneurs investing in their community.

One of the industries, which will build a plant to make ethanol out of a wheat starch by-product, was included in a round of grants and tax incentives approved Thursday by the Economic Development Board and Iowa Department of Economic Development.

Keokuk Ethanol Company was awarded $200,000 from the Value-Added Agricultural Products and Processes Financial Assistance Program and Enterprise Zone tax benefits. The $7 million project is expected to create 20 jobs paying an average wage of $21 per hour.

Keokuk Ethanol Company is a division of TC Energy LLC of Keokuk. John Rothgeb and Gerald Moughler, both Keokuk residents, are the principal shareholders.

Gov. Chet Culver said the state is investing in Iowa's future.

“My goal is to take full advantage of Iowa's natural resources, along with our incredible manufacturing base and workforce, to make Iowa the renewable energy capital of the nation,” he said.

IDED Director Mike Tramontina said the state is “continuing to aggressively recruit high-quality companies and careers to Iowa and strengthen our leadership position in renewable energy.”

Wait a second. Did I read that correctly? December 21, 2007? That's barely 2 years ago!

From what I can tell by reading other news stories, the ethanol plant never got built. Only the bio-diesel plant was operational, and not for long. It was sold recently at auction to Swiss company BFSG, which must stand for something like "Big F@%$ing S#*%-eating Grin".

Why was it sold? Something about a nearly $2 million judgment against Tri-City Energy. This from the December 8, 2009 Keokuk Daily Gate:

A local business has a 30-day reprieve from the auction block, a delay that could allow its owners to wrap up a pending deal with the buyer of their choice.

Tri-City Energy, LLC, Keokuk, a soybean oil-based biodiesel plant, had been facing a Dec. 16 sheriff’s auction. However, the sale of the 219 S. Fifth St. plant, equipment and lab has been moved back to Jan. 20, 2010...

...The $1,976,513 court judgment against Tri-City Energy could have been satisfied by its sale to BFSG International of Zurich, Switzerland. But the transaction, which was supposed to be finalized on Nov. 6, fell through.

Why did the bio-diesel market go haywire so quickly?

Well, it was either because of the yanking of the tax credit due to Harry Reid, like AOLer Al Moander had mentioned in the DMR guest opinion piece.

Or perhaps it was because of what AOLer Al Moander told the Keokuk Daily Gate on October 30, 2009:

...not long after the plant began production, the soybean market “inverted itself,” Moander said. Soybean prices sky rocketed and the once sky-high price of petroleum-based fuels plummeted, dragging on the young company’s finances.

Or perhaps it was because of what the Keokuk Daily Gate said on December 8, 2009:

A recession that had been brewing in the nation’s financial sector hit and further compromised Tri-City Energy’s bottom line, along with many other industries and businesses worldwide.

Gee, let's blame it on the nation's financial sector..... or the soybean market..... or the oil industry..... let's blame it on ANYTHING except what was really going on: a bunch of guys in small town Iowa who tried to exploit a Federal tax credit put there by politicians obsessed with "green jobs" and other nonsense.

You live by the tax credit. You die by the tax credit.

You think you can get rich by exploiting stupidity created by government? No way! What kind of playa do you think you are? You're just a sucker!

Hey, Chet Culver, you fat-assed loser, where's that $200,000 now?

Hey, Iowa Department Of Economic Development Corporate Welfare, who got to take credit for the fake 20 "green jobs" that were never created?

Oh, look who was involved with Tri-City Energy early on. It's none other than former Iowa Senate leader Lowell Junkins, who is now spending his waning days as a Vilsack apppointee as Chairman Of The Board and Director of the Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corporation (Farmer Mac). What could possibly go wrong there with Lowell Junkins in charge? Stay tuned.