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Imperium Renewables Loses Key Biodiesel Contract
17 August 2008
Seattle P-I. Imperium Renewables, the Seattle-based biodiesel producer that opened a 100 million gallon per year plant in Grays Harbor County last year, has lost a key contract to supply about 18 million gallons of biodiesel annually to Royal Caribbean Cruises.
The cruise line also sold its 7 percent stake in the Grays Harbor plant, raising questions about the future of the $78 million facility. The loss of the contract with Royal Caribbean—Imperium’s largest customer—is a huge setback. And it follows a series of events over the past eight months—including the cancellation of an initial public offering, staff layoffs and executive departures—that highlight the troubles facing the one-time rising star in Seattle’s clean tech industry.
Imperium has also closed its Honolulu office and laid off its local staff of two. The company opened the office last year after announcing plans to build a $90-million biodiesel plant at Campbell Industrial Park, with output of 5-12 million gallons per year to go to a new nearby Hawaiian Electric Co. power plant. (Earlier post.)
In January, Imperium Renewables, Inc. withdrew its registration statement for an IPO with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Just prior to Christmas (2007), Imperium announced that CEO and Chairman Martin Tobias had been “transitioned” out of the company. (Earlier post.)
August 17, 2008 in Brief | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBack (0)
Comments
Posted by: Henry Gibson | August 17, 2008 at 09:48 AM
HG perhaps you should back up those generalized bogus statements with scientific data or study sources. A simple search through the GCC archives easily points to significant possibilities to replace a major segment of fossil fuels with renewable sources. The only thing one might logically conclude from this article is that the company is suffering from poor management.
Posted by: john galt | August 17, 2008 at 02:06 PM
This is pretty sad. A lot of unanswered questions here though - why did RC drop the contract? Why is IR floundering? What did Martin Tobias do or not do to the company & result in being "transitioned"? Maybe the truth will be revealed in a business school case study or businessweek/forbes/fortune article.
Posted by: ejj | August 17, 2008 at 04:36 PM
Henry
There have been real laws around since the first dawn.
renewable is written in as the fundamental basis of along with evolution.
That the present batch of social lawmakers choose to acquaint themselves with this concept demonstrates that laws informed by reality dont make deals.
Posted by: arnold | August 17, 2008 at 07:05 PM
"Imperium Renewables"
More CORPORATE GREED, disguised as "clean energy," ruining the country. These evil capitalists were going to sell out to investors with initial public offerings. That is pure evil. Obama will fix these evil companies. Go Obama!
Posted by: Albert G | August 21, 2008 at 04:57 AM
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Renewables don't seem to pay well for this company inspite of all of the various governments forcing the use of expensive renewable energie sources. Cruise passengers may not even care if the exhaust smells like popcorn. There is not enough biomass of all kinds to operate the petroleum industry much less all of the US energy demand. Renewable is a magic word that causes laws without considering the caloric requirments of many homosapiens. ..HG..