President-elect Trump has chosen former Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue to head the Agriculture Department. Like many ag-centric GOP politicians, Perdue has a record marked with corporate welfare.
One episode from his tenure as governor could be telling.
“I’m confident the bioenergy industry and sector is going to be a cornerstone of the new Georgia,” Perdue said. To this end, he rolled out subsidies for turning wood chips into ethanol, trumpeting when Range Fuels set up a wood-to-ethanol plant in the state. Perdue provided more than $6 million in state subsidies for the project.
As you might guess, the project didn’t work. In 2011 the plant closed down before squeezing even a drop of ethanol out of the trees. In 2012, Range Fuels sold the plant. A successor company has taken up the mantel and may yet produce some pine-based moonshine to pour into gasoline, but senators may ask Perdue in his confirmation hearings whether Range Fuels’ failure taught Perdue anything about government picking winners and losers.
Timothy P. Carney, The Washington Examiner’s senior political columnist, can be contacted at [email protected]. His column appears Tuesday and Thursday nights on washingtonexaminer.com.
