Texas company KiOR hoodwinked Mississippi for $75M, documents show
Then-Gov. Haley Barbour bragged in 2010 that the biofuel company KiOR would invest $500 million and create 1,000 jobs in Mississippi.
He gushed about the project for which lawmakers loaned $75 million, saying, “We may look back and say it did more to change and do good for the people of Mississippi than any other.”
The company has since declared bankruptcy, and internal documents obtained by The Clarion-Ledger show executives hoodwinked Barbour and other Mississippi officials about its ability to produce large amounts of a cheap bio-crude that oil companies could refine.
As a result, taxpayers are being forced to shell out $69 million — even more than the $55 million they paid for the beef plant fiasco, which ended in the criminal convictions of private developers.
Clarion Ledger
7/29/17
Magnolia Tribune
