Filed on May 16, 2007 at 7:32 pm under by dcobranchi
The Fayetteville Observer is crediting LttE and blog posts as part of the reason the E85 plant won’t get built.
I can’t imagine who they mean. 🙂
Filed on at 5:16 am under by dcobranchi
Local item: The worst economic development project in the history of man is dead. This one had it all: a possibly fly-by-night chemical company that has never built or operated a chemical plant, a huge conflict of interest on the sale of the land, and an absolutely horrible location in town on a major thoroughfare.
The E85 project has been on life support since an almost million dollar bribe incentive package went down in flames a month ago. Yesterday, the doctors all agreed– brain death. (One might say the same thing about those who pushed this.) May it rest in peace.
Filed on April 29, 2007 at 7:18 am under by dcobranchi
A local item:
Business Council ignores residents’ ‘no’ to E85
The Cumberland County Business Council receives $400,000 in county tax money and $200,000 in city tax money. Flashing across its Web site are the words “Improving Quality of Life,†followed by “Creating Wealth.â€
Hundreds of taxpayers wrote letters and signed petitions in opposition to E85. A majority of the commissioners were voting no for the $875,000 incentive package. I am hearing a resounding “No!†for E85 from county residents and our leaders.
Why, then, did the Business Council fax an April 12 letter to businesses soliciting support for E85? Why is it pleading with businesses to send e-mail back that says, “I support E85,†so it can place a supportive ad in the newspaper?
The ad hasn’t hit the paper, so we can only assume that the council didn’t get the e-mails it so desperately needed. Where is the support for E85, and what is driving the Business Council to passionately push E85 into a site where it is not wanted? [emphasis added]
The answer is certainly not “Improving Quality of Life.†Maybe “Creating Wealth†is the motivation for the Business Council.
The council is ignoring the voice of the taxpayers and the commissioners who fund the council. Taxpayers saved $875,000 when the incentives for E85 were withdrawn. Another way to save taxpayers money would be for the commissioners to cut funds to the Business Council. Cutting $400,000 out of the budget would open both ears and minds at the council.
Sam Bright
President, King’s Grant Homeowners
Fayetteville
The answer is obvious.
Filed on March 25, 2007 at 7:53 am under by dcobranchi
Yesterday Gene Smith, Fayetteville Observer senior editorial writer, was pretty clear that he was not opposed to building an ethanol plant off Ramsey St. Yet today’s lead editorial goes in exactly the opposite direction:
This would be E85’s and North Carolina’s first ethanol plant. The company has no experience operating the giant distilleries it plans to build. The state has no experience regulating them. Both are confident they’re up to the job, and that all the necessary regulations are in place.
Maybe they’re right. But maybe they aren’t. Does Cumberland County want to gamble on that for 40 new jobs and a small jolt in the tax base (initially, about $1 million a year, but declining as plant facilities are depreciated)?
We think not. The county and E85 should find a more suitable site or the deal should stop, right now.
Filed on March 24, 2007 at 7:04 am under by dcobranchi
Well, I’m mentioned in the paper anyway. 🙂
More on ethanol, but hold on a sec. Gotta jab myself with this needle first. OW!
Daryl Cobranchi, who identifies himself as a “pedantic chemist,†says I erred in calling ethanol “gasoline with some alcohol in it — or, depending on the grade, alcohol with a little gasoline in it.â€
Ethanol, Daryl writes, “is a type of alcohol, specifically one with the chemical formula CH3CH2OH. Ethanol is blended with gasoline in percentages ranging from 10 percent to 85 percent. Ethanol is not a fossil fuel. It is an alternative to fossil fuels.â€
Daryl, in my lexicon that doesn’t qualify as pedantry. It qualifies as being right. I used “ethanol†as a synonym for the blends — in that column, E85. Will try to be less sloppy hereafter.
The rest of the column is worth a read, BTW.
Filed on January 6, 2007 at 7:12 am under by dcobranchi
I’m striving to maintain my reputation as a crank:
Is the tax incentive deal a conflict of interest?
Does it not strike the county commissioners as just a bit off that the Business Council negotiates tax incentives for E85 while Dr. Franklin Clark, a charter member of that same council, will benefit from selling the land to E85?
If the Business Council were a government entity, that kind of deal would certainly be deemed a conflict of interest. Even for a private concern, it just looks awful.
Daryl Cobranchi
Fayetteville
Filed on December 22, 2006 at 5:42 pm under by dcobranchi
12-22-06 This one is looking fishier all the time. Dollars to donuts the plant never gets built and the incentive money just evaporates.
Filed on at 7:58 am under by dcobranchi
Just a couple of random quotes about an ethanol plant to be built here in Fayetteville.
A Seattle company called E85 Inc. plans to build a plant north of Fayetteville that will produce 100 million gallons of ethanol each year.
[…]
Phyllis Owens, an executive vice president with the Cumberland County Business Council, helped orchestrate the deal.
[…]
The Business Council is a private, nonprofit business recruiter that gets subsidies from local taxpayers.
[…]
The incentives include $875,000 that Cumberland County commissioners have been asked to spend toward buying the land. The commissioners likely will hold a public hearing Jan. 16.
[…]
E85 has an option to buy the land from Dr. Franklin Clark, a local developer and a charter member of the Cumberland County Business Council.
That’s a sweet deal! He negotiates with the county for “incentives” for the company who in turn buy the land from him.
