Mitch McConnell sought money for biofuel plant while criticizing Obama for idea

Source: Louisville Courier-Journal


McConnell sought grant, criticized plan

Feb. 13, 2014 5:57 PM

Two years ago, U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell took to the Senate floor to deride President Barack Obama for a speech that called for developing biofuel from algae — dismissing it as nothing more than a “pipe dream.”

“I think the American people realize that a president who’s out there talking about algae when they’re having to choose between whether to buy groceries or to fill up the tank is the one who’s out of touch,” McConnell thundered.

But a few years earlier, McConnell, R-Ky., himself worked to obtain a $30 million grant for a company that wanted to build a plant in Springfield, Ky., to turn algae, switchgrass, corncobs and other such materials into ethanol — a plant that ultimately was never built and a grant that was never spent.

And each time McConnell interceded on behalf of the Nicholasville-based company Alltech or the federal government took action to help, its founder and president wrote a check to McConnell’s campaign or the Republican Party of Kentucky.

Though others in Kentucky’s delegation supported the grant application, including U.S. Rep. John Yarmuth, D-3rd District, none except McConnell received contributions from T. Pearse Lyons, Alltech’s founder and president, according to the Federal Election Commission website.

Read more: http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20140213/NEWS010605/302130054?gcheck=1&nclick_check=1