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To: IceShark who wrote (17032)	9/10/2000 6:57:35 PM
From: Thomas M.	Respond to of 436258

Exactly. Not only did Gore back a suspect technology (Abelson was bashing them in Barron's, it was well known they were shady), but there were kickbacks involved, too. It was Clinton-esque. -g- Tom

To: IceShark who wrote (17032)	9/10/2000 10:06:44 PM
From: Ken98	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 436258

Yep, the whole technology was a wash-out and the company (MMT) eventually filed bankruptcy and stiffed everyone. In addition to the lucrative contracts with the EPA (or Energy Dept., I can't remember now) that were publicized, there were some private contracts with large companies that had received "suggestions" to use the technology. If some smart young reporter would do his job he would go find those companies and write a nice article about the tens of millions of dollars that were flushed in this fiasco. I'm not holding my breath...

To: IceShark who wrote (17032)	9/10/2000 11:34:57 PM
From: Ken98	Respond to of 436258

1997 Time article re. MMT: <<Democratic Contributors Got Hefty Government Contracts By Michael Weisskopf/TIME WASHINGTON (Oct. 16) -- Molten Metal Technology was a fledgling environmental firm which had landed $1 million in Energy Department grants. The company was looking for more. In March 1994, the company hit pay dirt, and so did two of Vice President Al Gore's special interests. On March 22, Molten chief Bill Haney's charitable foundation gave $50,000 to a professorship at the University of Tennessee, named for Gore's late sister. On March 24, the Energy Department increased Molten's research funding from $1 million to $10 million. That same day, Molten sent the Democratic Party a $15,000 check, part of $130,000 in total gifts from the company or its officers through 1996. TIME has obtained a letter from Vice President Gore to Molten's Haney, thanking him for the endowment gift and adding in the margin, "You will never know how much this means to me. You are a great friend." The bridge between Molten Metal, Gore and the Energy Department was a longtime Gore aide, Peter Knight. He served as chairman of the 1996 Clinton-Gore campaign and is known as the vice president's political alter-ego. Knight and his firm have lobbied for Molten Metal since 1993. During the campaign, it was Knight who wrote many of the call sheets prepared for the vice president's fund-raising forays, phone calls now under investigation by the Justice Department. Knight, Molten's Haney and the vice president all deny any connection between the Energy Department grants and the university endowment for Gore's sister. Gore was no stranger to Molten Metal. On Earth Day 1995, Gore visited the plant, calling it "a shining example of American ingenuity." The vice-presidential visit sent Molten Metals stock price sharply higher. Molten was not the only successful Knight client to make contributions to the University of Tennessee professorship named for Gore's sister. Lockheed Martin made gifts totalling $50,000 in 1995 and 1997, within months of Energy Department decisions to extend Lockheed Martin's management contracts at the Oak Ridge national laboratory. The contracts were worth $40 million a year. Lockheed Martin, Knight and Gore deny any link between the gifts and the contracts. The vice president was responsible for bringing in about half the money required -- $1 million -- for an endowment at the University of Tennessee. Knight, one of Washington's premier lobbyists knew where to find the money. His attorney admits Knight mailed more than 100 letters asking for help on behalf of Gore. Today, Gore spokeswoman Ginny Terzano said, "The assertion that the vice president's involvement with the Nancy Gore Hunger Chair of Excellence had anything to do with companies receiving government contracts is absolutely baseless. This is innuendo pure and simple. It's offensive that the Gore family's memorial to the vice president's deceased sister could be so abused through innuendo and speculation.">> cnn.com