Evergreen's new partner, DTE?
Here is an independent website that lists DTE Energy as one of Evergreen's partners:
reveredata.com
Now why would the largest power provider in Michigan be listed as an Evergreen partner? You don't suppose they're interested in building a new Bechtel K-fuel refinery with Evergreen, now do you?
humm, kind of makes you wonder, but show me more evidence........
We know Arch has always been seriously interested in building a K-fuel refinery at their Coal Creek mine, but like others, they want to see somebody else's working plant before they build one themselves. Could it be that DTE will be first at bat? DTE's got $445M in cash, enough to build about three new K-fuel refineries:
finance.yahoo.com
What other clues do we have to put this puzzle together? Well, we know that something has been holding up the deal, that's for sure. Could it be that DTE was waiting for the new Michigan Energy Plan to become law, so they could be guaranteed future business in the state of Michigan before their board would allow them to commit to any new investment? (i.e., a k-fuel refinery):
crainsdetroit.com
We do also know that one of the last shipments of K-fuel went out to a Michigan customer, and there are only two major power producers in Michigan::
blog.evgenergy.com
None of this would make any sense if DTE didn't have a serious coal plant emissions problem. But it sure seems like their Canadian neighbors aren't happy about all the mercury they're spewing into the air, and they're in the middle of taking legal action. I bet DTE would like to put that problem to rest ASAP:
waterkeeper.ca
Something else to think about - hasn't Collins been talking about a new plant location, with multiple forms of transport? Wouldn't some place like that DTE coal plant on the St. Clair river qualify?
pepei.pennnet.com
Hey now, look at that article above. DTE has converted to mostly PRB coal. Didn't Evergreen already do some extensive testing with the K-fuel process on PRB coal? Gee, I guess that would reduce the risk for DTE to build a new refinery, now wouldn't it? And if they located the new refinery at the same river port that DTE uses, wouldn't it make sense for the refinery to use the letdown steam from the power plant? That would certainly reduce the permitting time to get the new refinery up and running, eliminating the need for an expensive boiler, like the Evergreen K-Direct concept:
evgenergy.com
Collins certainly seems to be taking this new k-fuel plant prospect seriously, and just the other day renewed his effort to hire staff to coordinate the construction and operation of a new plant:
jobview.monster.com
cheduling+of+Construction+Projects+-+Build+Clean+Coal+Plants&co=xkfxx&cy=US&vw=b&AVSDM=2008-10-24+19%3a55%3a00&pg=1&seq=2
jobview.monster.com
x&cy=US&vw=b&AVSDM=2008-10-24+19%3a55%3a00&pg=1&seq=1
Must be tough for Collins to negotiate a deal like this. Michigan is an economic basket case now, so I'm sure they're insisting that Bechtel use local labor. If DTE owned the plant, they would also want exclusive use of it. That would make it kind of hard for Collins to eventually process large test burn samples for DTE's competitors.
Well, no deal is perfect. But, it looks like they both need it. Give them a little more time, and I'm sure they'll work out something. When DTE and Evergreen announce a new plant deal, this stock is going to get SQUEEEEEZED to the moon.
shortsqueeze.com
Hey, now look at that. It looks like the shorts are starting to cover. I wonder if they know something we don't? I guess they gave up on the idea of trying to ride this stock down to zero. Wonder why.
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