Kemp's Failing Green Companies Seeking Taxpayer Funded Capital to Survive

Kemp Blames Biden for His Poor Judgment

It wasn’t that long ago, June of 2021, when Governor Brian Kemp lauded landing a hydrogen energy cell-producing, green energy manufacturing plant, to be located in the town of Kingsland, located in Camden County near the southeastern coast of Georgia. That day, Kemp issued a press release announcing Plug Power’s investment to build an $84 million hydrogen manufacturing plant in that small town near the port of St. Mary’s, alongside I-95 near the Georgia-Florida border. The plant would produce hydrogen, to be used in fuel cells to power zero-emission machinery, such as delivery vehicles, forklifts, and even automobiles. According to the plan announced by Kemp that day, Plug’s $84 million plant would employ 24 Georgians.

Six months earlier, a South Korean conglomerate, SK Group, invested $1.5 billion in Plug’s ability to help fulfill a goal of the South Korean Government to transition to a hydrogen-based economy.

Flush with cash, after announcing a deal with French automaker Renault, Plug stock soared to a 15-year high.

But no stock price is sustainable without net earnings. By the time of Kemp’s announcement 6 months hence, Plug’s stock had spiraled to half of its previous high. Plug’s stock price has continued to drop, today sitting at only 6% of the high experienced a short 3 years ago.

Last month, in one day, Plug’s stock price dropped 23%, this after issuing a press release that it would seek another $1 billion in a new public offering, at market price, the fire sale sending investors scurrying for the exits.

Obviously, Plug Power needs financial help. Today the private sector sees hydrogen fuel riskier than the day after the Hindenburg disaster. Therefore, Plug is now appealing for government aid, and Governor Brian Kemp believes Georgia taxpayers are the one’s to pay for it.

And, apparently, that is why Camden County State Representative Steven Sainz, who represents Kingsland and the Plug Power facility, along with five other House members, dropped HB206 in the hopper last February.

HB206 sailed through committee and back onto the Georgia House floor, to be passed on March 6th of last session. The Senate took up the bill the following day, referring it to committee where it sat as time ran out in the session last year. This year, HB206 emerged from its Senate Committee as a substitute, making it onto the Senate floor on Monday of this week. Immediately, an emergency call from the Georgia Freedom Caucus went out, focusing grassroots attention on various egregious provisions in the bill.

So, what is in HB206?

First of all, as passed by the REPUBLICAN-CONTROLLED Georgia House of Representatives, HB206 indicates that the private sector in American no longer works. The same American private sector, which begot the Industrial Revolution, created the wealth and standard of living Americans enjoy today, can no longer be counted on to sustain the American economy, UNLESS government, in this case, Georgia Government, steps in to commit Georgia taxpayers to back the financing of green energy companies, which, of course by no fault of their own (I’m being facetious), cannot muster enough private investment to keep their ventures operating. According to lines 128-130,

“Because implementing such improvements requires high up-front capital costs with the resulting benefits achieved only over time, such improvements often cannot be financed on reasonable terms and are therefore not economically feasible for property owners.”

The property owner in question here is obviously Plug Power, its plant in Representative Sainz’ home district. So, how would HB206 do all that is intended? It would do so by creating,

“commercial property assessed conservation, energy, and resiliency development authorities to facilitate free and willing owners of agricultural, commercial, and industrial properties and of multifamily residential properties with five or more dwelling units to obtain low-cost, long-term financing for qualifying improvements, including energy efficiency, water conservation, renewable energy, and resiliency improvements.”

Original Intent of HB206

Well, ok, how would that work?

It would work, first by creating an entity known as, a “commercial property assessed conservation, energy, and resiliency development authority.”

What would that authority do?

It would go about the work of indebting Georgia taxpayers utilizing practically every form of debt instrument known to mankind,

And please understand, under HB206 a “commercial property assessed conservation, energy, and resiliency development authority” would not merely be established in the bill sponsor’s home district of Camden County, but also in every county and municipal corporation in the State of Georgia!

HB206, as passed overwhelmingly by your REPUBLICAN representatives in the Georgia House, takes this idea that the private sector no longer works on the road, planting government-sponsored, public-indebting agencies in every hamlet and hearthstone in the state, for the purpose of investing public funds, AT-RISK, to provide bailout and/or investment capital to EVERY qualified green-formulated start-up company, to “obtain low-cost, long-term financing for qualifying improvements, including energy efficiency, water conservation, renewable energy, and resiliency improvements.”

So, what do Georgia taxpayers receive for all of the money they will borrow to hand over to weak, high-risk green ventures such as Camden County’s failing Plug Power hydrogen manufacturing company?

Answer: In essence nothing, except the potential satisfaction that one or more of these private ventures might eventually be able to survive on its own business merits in an economy the authors of HB206 have already decided cannot support them. According to Governor Kemp’s 2021 press release, Plug Power in Camden County would only employ 24 people. At the very best, the upside for Georgia taxpayers is therefore that they might break even from taking on all this debt. Oh, and its not just a small amount of debt, we’re talking about. I say that because there would be NO LIMIT UPON THE AMOUNT OF REVENUE BONDS, NOTES, OR OTHER OBLIGATIONS THAT AN AUTHORITY MAY ISSUE.

Friends, I have seen egregious legislation before, but I must tell you, this one takes the cake. Even worse than HB1013 and HB520, at least those bills endeavored to hide their true purposes from view. HB206 puts it all right out there in plain view.

Do not misunderstand what is going on here. This is not an example of socialism. Socialism is entirely different from this. HB206 passed into law is CORPORATE FASCISM. It is the use of massive corporate influence to shape public policy. HB206 is just another example of what is happening at practically every level of American government. It’s a cycle. A free enterprise system creates wealth. Corporate holders of large wealth use it to influence government policy to operate on their behalf. Your Georgia Government has become a tool for corporatists to indebt you, the taxpayer, for their behalf. And when you decide you have had enough, the corporate economic engine will build a prison to house you until you have decided to cooperate. That is called communism. You cannot have communism without a corporate economic engine to power it. I just described Communist China. That is where this goes.

Kemp Blames His Bad Policy on Biden

Oh, but of course, all this is Biden’s fault. The failure of green companies to support their own operations in Georgia has nothing to do with the policies of Brian Kemp, as supported by the Georgia General Assembly. Of course not. Remember Rivian? Yes, the electric truck manufacturer Brian Kemp put into business by indebting the people of Georgia? That was May of 2022, almost two years ago.

Where is Rivian today? Not good, stock price down 47% since the May 2, 2022 announcement by Kemp’s Economic Development Commissioner.

What does Kemp say? It’s all Biden’s fault.

Yes, it’s all Biden’s fault, for pushing the EV market “too fast.” Notice this attitude, that somehow it is the government’s responsibility to manage the economy, picking not only winners and losers, but entire industries. This is what a so-called, “conservative Republican” has become today. Forget the free-market, as if it were ever really free, at least in our lifetimes. The American people, led by governors such as Brian Kemp, have become subjects to the king. And as long as the people are fooled by the charade these actors put on, nothing will change.

Time to Chastise

It is time to chastise your Georgia representatives for passing such an egregious bill as HB206 last year. You can find how your representative voted right HERE. This has to stop. Where are all the so-called “conservative Republicans.” I know of maybe a handful. Don’t let them fool you. It is up to you to reproach them for allowing something like this to pass, especially so easily last year. Then it is up to you to coach them back on the straight and narrow. Reproach, then coach. That is the voter’s responsibility.

The good news is that so many responded earlier in the week, calling their senators when it appeared the HB206 substitute would come up for a vote on Monday. Your calls made a difference, as they should. But for now, HB206 is not dead. It has not been tabled. It could be brought back up at any time for a vote in the Senate. There are good people providing a constant vigil at the capital, who will let us know if something changes. Remain on the alert. This is a team effort. Sine die cannot come fast enough.

I appreciate you all.