Georgians on the hook for failed ethanol facility
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By Dan Chapman
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Range Fuels, the failed wood-to-ethanol factory in southeastern Georgia that cost taxpayers $70 million, was sold Tuesday for pennies on the dollar. Its buyer is a company that is backed by the same man who bankrolled and helped secure government loans for Range Fuels before it went bust last year.
California entrepreneur Vinod Khosla is the main financial backer of LanzaTech, the New Zealand-based biofuel company that paid $5.1 million Tuesday for the plant in Soperton.
LanzaTech hasnt received the same type of federal and state loans as Range Fuels, but the company has received $7 million from the U.S. departments of Energy and Transportation to assist in the development of alternative fuels.
The Range fiasco harkens other, failed renewable energy companies that received major taxpayer funding. California solar panel maker Solyndra got $535 million in federal loan guarantees. Beacon Power of Massachusetts, which makes energy-storage equipment, took in $43 million in federal money. Both filed for bankruptcy last year.
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