Tag Archives: John Downey

Shell companies: Adage and Wiregrass Power LLC



Look through the shell companies like Adage to the real backers.
Why is the source of

the recent news about Adage biomass
plants

being cancelled
the Charlotte Business Journal?
Adage is “An Areva/Duke Energy advanced biopower company.”
And Charlotte is where Duke Energy is based.

John Downey concludes

his article in the Charlotte Business Journal of 16 March 2011:

The joint venture has yet to build a biomass plant anywhere. DePonty
says it is clear that Adage will not achieve the goal announced when
Duke and Areva formed it to build 10 to 12 biomass plants around the
country by 2013.

Seems like the biomass gold rush is fizzling.



Meanwhile, back in Valdosta, Wiregrass Power LLC,
the shell company for the biomass plant, is owned by
Sterling Planet, whose founder and chairman

Sonny Murphy
spoke at the groundbreaking for

the Wiregrass Solar LLC plant, another Sterling Planet subsidiary.
I’m sure Chairman Murphy is aware that

his solar plant is already completed
while his biomass plant

still has no suppliers of raw materials, goods, or services nor buyers for its electricity.
Also, the biomass plant site preparation start date is now 1 June 2011,
when, if I’m not mistaken, it used to be January 2011.
And at the most recent VLCIA board meeting, the only mention I heard
of biomass was by a citizen
who spoke against it
while the VLCIA’s project manager
spoke at some length about the completion of the solar plant.
Seems to me building out the solar plant in two directions,
like VLCIA discussed at a previous board meeting, would make the
most sense at this point.
I guess we’ll see what Chairman Murphy does.

-jsq

Adage and Gretna’s mayor



That

previous plant in Florida
was the one in Gretna, Gadsden County, Florida, cancelled last year,
according to

John Downey in the Charlotte Business Journal, 16 October 2010.
In the Gretna case, the mayor of Gretna posted

a press release 16 March 2010 saying:

Mayor Anthony Baker of the City of Gretna announced today that in light
of Adage, LLC’s decision to suspend activity on its proposed Bioenergy
facility slated for construction in Gretna (as well as suspension
of its application for an air permit through the Florida Department
of Environmental Protection) that the City now considers this matter
closed and will take no further action on Adage’s request to locate
this facility in Gretna. Inasmuch as the Bioenergy Plant could neither
legally operate nor be sited in Gretna without an air permit, the City
concluded that this was no longer a viable project and Adage’s decision
to suspend activity on its air permit indicated that further consideration
of the project by the City was unwarranted. Since there were no issues
pending before the City of Gretna requiring action by its Commission
relative to the Plant, the Mayor deemed termination of the project as
final disposition of this matter as far as the City is concerned.

This is despite promises of

jobs, jobs, jobs:

Continue reading →

No Adage biomass plant in Hamilton County, Florida

According to Power-Gen Worldwide,

Plans for biomass power plant ends:

The company still has a permit to build a 55 MW plant in Florida but
there are no plans to start construction and the company is expected to
let the permit lapse in June. Adage ended plans in 2010 to build another
plant in Florida.

Why is Adage giving up on Hamilton County, Florida?

Christopher Dunagan writes in Kitsap Sun:



Meanwhile, a similar project by Adage in Northern Florida also will not
be pursued at this time, according to DePonty. That project has been
fully permitted and was about to move ahead if only the electricity
market had provided the financial incentive, he said.

Here’s the
Florida air permit.
Despite having that air permit and promising

jobs, jobs, jobs
Adage is apparently not going to build in Hamilton, County, Florida.

The source of the many stories on this appears to be

Continue reading →