Ernie Fletcher Calls Special Session To Subsidize Peabody’s Boondoggle With Our Tax Dollars.

Hillbilly Report
Glendale, Kentucky
http://www.hillbillyreport.com/
June 21, 2007
For information about coal to liquid click here.
For information about Peabody Energy Corp. click here.
Peabody Energy Corp. share holders want our tax dollars to help them make money with little or no risk.
Rick Bowen of Peabody Energy Corp. wrote the following to Gov. Ernie Fletcher.
“This summer, Peabody Energy intends to make a major decision regarding development of this project and its location. In doing so, Peabody must protect our shareholders by minimizing the cost of the project.”
A plan unveiled last week at a state energy subcommittee hearing in Muhlenberg County would offer $315 million in tax incentives over 25 years to a $2.5 billion coal-to-liquid plant.
I suggest it’s not Governor Ernie Fletcher’s job to protect Peabody share holders with my tax dollars. If I want to invest in Peabody Energy Corp., I’ll do it in the free market and Governor Ernie Fletcher and all his pals in Frankfort are free to do the same. 
How can this Governor, in good conscience, even think about subsidizing Peabody Energy Corp. with our tax dollars when people in Pike County, Kentucky still have to carry water in 5 gallon buckets?
If Peabody Energy Corp. is so hard up for money, the Governor might consider giving Peabody some of the money he has in his secret legal defense fund!!!!   

Comments

[Jes]

Amen!

A special session that will cost us $60,000 a day, all to write up $315 million in tax breaks to Peabody for a scheme that the federal government isn't subsidizing, after all, and that will cause even more destruction and fouled water in Eastern Kentucky?

All this, when the budgets for needed state programs and institutions--oh, say, public education, for example, and higher ed--have been butchered and hacked up repeatedly?

He's got to be joking...

[Jim A. Stivers]

AP
Peabody Energy CEO Exercises 9.600 Shares of his own stock!!!
Friday May 11, 10:15 am ET

In interesting bit of information about Gregory H. Boyce, the chief executive of Peabody Energy Corp, the worlds biggest coal company has been reported by Jim Pence at http://www.hillbillyreport.com/

Back in May, 2007, just after meeting with Governor Ernie Fletcher, as a guest at the Kentucky Derby, Mr. Boyce decided to sell his lower priced Peabody stock and gain a profit of three quarters of a million dollars. The details are on Hillbilly Report .

Jim Pence has done an excellent job of research on the coal to oil issue and the involvement of the Commonwealth of Kentucky and Peabody Energy. It's very clear now if Peabody is to attract investors, like Mr. Boyce, the CEO, then they need to minimize the risk for their shareholders. That is a good thing as every CEO should make every attempt to minimize the risk of the money stockholders give to Peabody for shares in Peabody Energy.

The buzz about COAL TO OIL has caused the stock of Peabody to go up. The stories in the news were well planted by the public relations people at Peabody. Want to make some big bucks from your stock? Then follow the lead of Mr. Boyce the CEO of Peabody, buy low, sell high. As a result the stock of Peabody jumps from $8.63 per share (the price Mr. Boyce paid for his stock in previous transactions) to $50.00. So the CEO decides this is a good time to divest of a portion of PEABODY STOCK to the tune of 9,600 shares and pick up a nifty $386,614 in profit. Nice move.

Peabody has established a foothold with the Congress in order to obtain Federal Assistance from our Government in the form of TAX BREAKS, PRICE SUBSIDIES and other freebees. Just this week the Congress was unable to come to a decision about the issue so it did not pass. Now, if you know anything at all about marketing, it is a very clever play. If the government subsidies Peabody coal and minimize their investment risk, what will happen when the national media picks up on this story? The price goes up again. A trillion dollar investment, with less than a 30% investment by Peabody, is great news and looks like a great opportunity to make some bucks in the stock market. I bet Mr. Boyce owns many more shares of Peabody stock other than the 9,600 shares he sold to make a quarter of million dollars just off of press releases.

This is my take on the situation.

Peabody's Public Relations officers, I am sure with the blessing of the board of directors of Peabody Coal, saw this wonderful opportunity. Now that we are paying almost three bucks per gallon for gasoline it is a good time to flood the Congress and the media with positive stories about coal to oil. I don't know who opened the door for this plan, but once the word got out and Peabody let it be known the largest coal company in the United States was interested in helping to relieve our dependence on import oil, mostly from Arab countries, by building an Energy Assistance program which Peabody claims will help to lower the price of oil and our dependence on the Middle East. This is big news, but don't think the Saudis and other ARAB oil producing countries are not watching this COAL TO OIL technology. The Saudis did not get control of the oil market by being stupid. Some of the executive officers, associated with Saudi oil, were educated in other countries, including the USA, in economics. With this knowledge the Saudis were able to establish the YO YO affect in the price of oil. Up and down up and down.

Since the USA has no control over Arab oil, this old WW11 technology, coal to oil, is revised by the scientist at Peabody Coal with a few new twists. The PR people prepare this elaborate plan for coal to oil. Mr. Boyce looks into it, takes it to the board of directors and boom, Peabody with help from the governments, gets some excellent press. The stock goes up. Yeahhhhhhhhh.

Now, in order to make sure Peabody does not put all their eggs in one basket, coal to oil processing centers, and be able attract additional investors the buzz is the government is very interested in this science. The word spreads like a wildfire thru the news media that are too stupid to evaluate the total story. All the media wants to do is be first with this wonderful idea by Peabody Coal to reduce our dependency on import oil. Now what Congresman would not buy into that?

Seems our inept Governor, who knows very little about business, he has never operated a business or handed out a paycheck that did not come from government funds. Fletcher sees this as a wonderful opportunity for some positive press. And so does the wide screen, wallpapered Senator Williams.

Wide Screen Williams sees this as an opportunity to also jump in and support the idea. Then Senator from Burkesville (?) begins to spin his political mind, knowing that he has taken some pretty hard shots across the bow of his political flagship. Fletcher welcomes Wide Screen Williams to the foal and boom . . . that which the Senate leader previously would not allow to come to public discussion now wants to assist Fletcher in calling a special session. The regional media buys into the Coal to Oil plan. The news breaks and the pandering for a special session begin.

Speaker Jody Richards says this can wait until January when the General Assembly meets in regular session.

However, "SLICK ERNIE" - who is double digit trailing Steve Beshear- does not agree. After all, when the General Assembly meets again, Kentucky will have a new Democratic Governor name Steve Beshear, who also decided Coal to Oil is a great idea and realizes the heavy impact of the current buzz going on with Coal to Oil. He knows Fletcher is going to try and pull this Peabody issue off, so he makes his statement so that when elected, the current Governor has loosened up the public about this idea and so it would be good to announce, in advance, he is for COAL TO OIL processing centers.

Politically this is a good idea, but . . . what if the public rises up and says to the officials of our government? "Jeez stop this government gives away to major corporations paid for by the tax we pay!"

"Peabody Energy CEO Gregory H. Boyce Exercises Options for 9,200 Shares"

Check the complete and intelligent post by Pence on his blog. He has done an excellent job.

Jim Anderson Stivers