US Sugar Everglades Land Purchase Update
As some of you may have noticed, I've been following the Florida purchase of Everglades land from US Sugar. Here are a few updates.
The good:
The deal was recently changed from the state purchasing the entire company outright, assets and all, to just purchasing the lions share of the land. The plan was for US Sugar to keep it's sugar refineries and to build an ethanol processing plant on some of it's remaining land to make ethanol from the plant waste from the other sugar crops that remain in the state. I think this is a great idea.
The bad:
An outside financial firm from New York, hired to give a second opinion on the purchase, says the state is paying way to much. The article points out a few issues with the report and it's claims of the values of US Sugar and many who support the acquisition say it's not relevant with the changes to the deal but I'm still sure those who oppose the deal will be waving this as their main argument from now on. This reminds me of the whole fiasco over EELS land purchases here in Brevard earlier this year.
The good:
The deal was recently changed from the state purchasing the entire company outright, assets and all, to just purchasing the lions share of the land. The plan was for US Sugar to keep it's sugar refineries and to build an ethanol processing plant on some of it's remaining land to make ethanol from the plant waste from the other sugar crops that remain in the state. I think this is a great idea.
The bad:
An outside financial firm from New York, hired to give a second opinion on the purchase, says the state is paying way to much. The article points out a few issues with the report and it's claims of the values of US Sugar and many who support the acquisition say it's not relevant with the changes to the deal but I'm still sure those who oppose the deal will be waving this as their main argument from now on. This reminds me of the whole fiasco over EELS land purchases here in Brevard earlier this year.