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ESTABLISHING A SECONDARY CREDIT MARKET CRUCIAL TO FUTURE INVESTMENT
September 2007
ETHANOL PRODUCER MAGAZINE
By: W. Bruce Crain

As the ethanol industry continues to grow, so does the need for additional financing. However, there is a lack of underwriting expertise with community banks and a perceived long-term risk associated with ethanol loans. If the number of renewable energy companies is to continue to grow, federal action must be taken to educate the lending community and provide banks with the tools needed to service the debt financing needs of the new companies.

Renewable energy financing has its roots in production agriculture and farmer cooperatives served by the Farm Credit System, which is a government-sponsored enterprise (GSE) created by Congress in 1916 to provide American agriculture with a dependable source of credit. However, more non-farmers are now involved in the development of renewable energy, and these entrepreneurs do not have access to the Farm Credit System member institutions. Instead, they rely on community bankers for financing. For the most part, "Main Street" lenders have yet to develop an understanding of the underwriting necessary for financing ethanol and biodiesel plants, anaerobic digester projects, wood pellets plants and other sources of renewable biomass energy. Little education has occurred to teach community bankers how to best determine the financial viability of a renewable energy project. Even with government guarantees provided by the USDA and the U.S. DOE, banks still perceive the risk to be too great and thus do not make funding available for these projects that in many cases could provide an important economic boost for their communities.

Some would argue that community banks "redline" these projects, much like banks were accused of doing with inner-city businesses and housing in the latter part of the 20th century. To overcome that obstacle, Congress and banking regulators established the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA). Enacted in 1977, the CRA is intended to encourage depository institutions to help meet the credit needs of the communities in which they operate. It also mandated lenders to demonstrate how they serve the underserved segments of their communities.

Banks argue that loans to renewable energy and other less conventional ventures have to stay on their books for years and lenders are thus subjected to market risks that many small banks are simply unable to absorb. Unlike mortgage and rural land loans, a "secondary market" that allows banks to sell these loans off to an entity like Fannie Mae or Farmer Mac does not exist. Banks argue that without a further way to mitigate risk, their participation in this new domestic industry will be limited. Creating a secondary market would "liquefy" these funds thereby freeing up bank capital that can be further invested in other renewable energy projects or commercial and residential ventures.

To overcome this obstacle to a steady flow of commercial credit for renewable energy, the following recommendations should receive serious consideration in Washington, D.C. First, Congress should work with federal and state financial institution regulators to expand the CRA requirements imposed on depository institutions to include loans made to entrepreneurs and companies commercializing renewable energy projects in their communities. This will entice and encourage lenders to learn how to make loans to these companies and produce much-needed debt financing for these projects.

Congress should also consider the creation of a secondary market for renewable energy loans that would mitigate some of the risk associated with long-term financing necessary for renewable energy projects such as ethanol, biodiesel and other ventures. This secondary market could be pursued in one of three ways:

› Expanding the charter of Farmer Mac or the Federal Home Loan Bank System to allow these GSEs to purchase renewable energy loans at a premium from lenders.
› Authorizing the establishment of the "Renewable Energy Government Loan Corporation (Reggie Mac)" that has a mission of purchasing renewable energy loans from lenders. As with other GSEs, these loans would be pooled, securitized and sold to investors who are interested in buying AAA-rated paper from other GSEs such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Pooling different types of renewable energy projects further helps mitigate risk and helps stabilize funding for future developments.
› Authorizing a study to be carried out jointly by the USDA and DOE to examine the feasibility of an in-house secondary market entity like Ginnie Mae that would be charged with purchasing renewable energy loans from lenders. Congress should require the departments to seek that advice and counsel of the Office of Housing Enterprise Oversight (Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's Federal regulator) while conducting this study.

Finally, national renewable energy associations should work with federal banking regulators, USDA Rural Development, DOE, the American Bankers Association and other banking associations to offer underwriting education to teach lenders how to underwrite renewable energy loans.

Maintain Economic Development If renewable energy continues to grow in this country, everything possible must be done to ensure that federally insured depository institutions such as banks, thrifts and credit unions are willing and able to provide the much-needed debt financing for renewable energy projects. The banking community is essential to the economic development in our communities. To make sure mostly rural areas, where renewable energy plants are located, get access to debt and credit needed to run a business, we need to bring lenders into the renewable energy community as active participants. This must be done in a way that makes lenders understand the potential for this new and growing book of business. However, bankers must be provided with the underwriting education and lending tools necessary to serve renewable energy companies without damaging the stability of their own financial institutions. Doing so will make bankers become willing partners in this ever-growing segment of our economy that over the long term will be an important new customer base for the nation's depository lending institutions. For this reason Congress and President George W. Bush's administration should act now to do the same for the renewable energy market that they did for other underserved segments of society. Banks should receive credit toward their CRA lending requirements for making renewable energy loans. Also, banks should be given access to a secondary market for renewable energy loans similar to the secondary markets that exist for housing and student loans. Mitigating risks is essential to any type of business, and providing the necessary incentives, education and financial support will allow banks to serve renewable energy companies without jeopardizing the viability of these local institutions that are essential to the economic stability and growth of our communities.

One would be hard pressed to argue that domestically produced renewable energy is any less important that a steady flow of credit for housing, student loans or farming operations. Therefore, necessary lending education needs to be offered, and legislation, policies and regulations need to be enacted to ensure that debt financing critical to successful commercialization of renewable energy companies is readily available from local lending institutions.

W. Bruce Crain is the president of Crain Consulting Inc., a renewable energy financial consulting firm based in Jackson, Miss. He has more than 25 years of experience in debt and equity finance, business development, management and government relations on the national and state levels. Reach Crain at brucecrain@crainconsulting.net or (601) 957-3493.

The claims and statements made in this article belong exclusively to the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Ethanol Producer Magazine or its advertisers. All questions pertaining to this article should be directed to the author(s).

CRAIN CONSULTING CLIENT AWARDED A $4.9 MILLION LOAN GUARANTEE FOR RENEWABLE ENERGY PLANT

Crain Consulting is proud to announce that the U.S. Department of Agriculture has awarded a loan guarantee of $4.9 million for the company’s client, Bayou Wood Products, of West Monroe, Louisiana.

Bayou Wood Products will use the funds to build a facility that would turn wood waste products into an alternative fuel source. The commercial millwork company plans to expand its operation by taking wood scraps and other waste and turning them into wood pellets to be used as a heat source. When constructed the facility will products 60,000 tons of pellets per year.

“We are pleased that our client’s project was deemed worthy of this $4.9 million loan guarantee from USDA. Bayou Wood Products saw an opportunity to utilize its waste wood material to produce a renewable energy that is needed and wanted by the public and industry alike. It was a pleasure to assist them in seizing this lucrative business opportunity,” Crain Consulting President Bruce Crain said."

Northsider Bruce Crain is working to help create alternative energy sources by assisting companies in securing financing for renewable energy projects.

Through his company, Crain Consulting, Crain recently helped a Florida company secure a $33 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy that will be used to construct a cellulosic ethanol plant. Only five other companies in the country were awarded similar grants, according to a press release.

The company, Alico Inc., which is involved with the production of citrus, sugar cane and forest products, will be building a plant that will transform 770 tons per day of agricultural and forest waste into 13.9 million gallons of ethanol each year, and will create 6,255 kilowatts of electricity, 8.8 tons of hydrogen and 50 tons of ammonia each day.

"The plant will utilize a patented thermochemical technology that ferments synthesis gas. This process, developed by Bioengineering Resources Inc., (BRI) of Fayetteville, Ark., is suitable for any biomass, even those not easily processed biologically such as wood and wood waste," according to the press release.

Crain's company, which has been in business since 2001, has clients in 43 states and two countries, Crain said.

Another of Crain Consulting's clients is a company using a device known as a digester to turn poultry waste into methane, said Crain, Crain Consulting.

"We're taking a waste product that is an environmental hazard, that when it's placed back on the ground generates greenhouse gases, and we're going to take that and mix it in a digester and produce a methane gas, thereby eliminating those greenhouse gasses," he said. "And that qualifies us for something called carbon sequestration credits, which is another one of our sources of funding that we can use for projects that are removing or eliminating the potential of danger to the environment that are associated with greenhouse gasses."

Not only are these kinds of projects good for the environment, but they're helping communities economically, Crain said.

"These things are all environmentally friendly because they are carbohydrate based technologies," he said. "Most of these plants have to be located in rural areas. That means they are job creators in these area and many of these areas are communities that have been just severely damaged economically by the loss of plants that have moved offshore. You're also using the natural resources in the community. You're creating jobs that are sustainable jobs. And you're going into areas that are in many cases desperately in need of a shot in the arm."

March 1, 2007--U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Sam Bodman today announced a $33 million grant award to Alico, Inc. to be used along with private capital to construct a cellulosic ethanol plant in LaBelle, Florida.

The $33 million grant, prepared and submitted on behalf of Alico by Crain Consulting, Inc. of Jackson, Mississippi and its associate Westar Trade Resources of Lubbock, Texas, is one of only six grants awarded to six different companies seeking to develop cellulosic ethanol in the U.S. Alico’s project, along with the five other awardees, was deemed the “cream of the crop” by Secretary Bodman during his announcement at the DOE headquarters today.

Alico, Inc. is an agribusiness company primarily engaged in the production of sugar, sugarcane, cattle, sod and forest products. The company’s operations are located in central and southwest Florida and its primary asset is 136,081 acres of land located in Collier, Hendry, Lee, and Polk Counties. The common stock of Alico, Inc. is traded over the counter on NASDAQ under the symbol ALCO.

Cellulosic ethanol is an alternative fuel made from a wide variety of non-food plant materials including agricultural and forestry wastes and energy crops grown specifically for fuel production. The Alico plant, to be completed in 2010, will use 770 tons per day of wood and vegetable wastes and eventually “energycane” to produce $13.9 million gallons of ethanol per year. In addition, the plant will produce 6,255 kilowatts of electric power, 8.8 tons of hydrogen and 50 tons of ammonia per day.

The plant will utilize a patented thermochemical technology that ferments synthesis gas. This process, developed by Bioengineering Resources, Inc. (BRI) of Fayetteville, Arkansas, is suitable for any biomass, even those not easily processed biologically such as wood and wood waste.

“We are pleased that our client’s project was deemed worthy of this historic $33 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy. Alico CEO John Alexander and BRI President Dr. James Gaddy have joined forces to create what many believe is the future of fuel production in this country. Crain Consulting and our associate Westar Trade Resources consider it a true honor to work for such innovators and to have the opportunity to work to create a important new source for domestically- produced renewable energy, and help reduce the production of green house gases that damage our environment,” Crain Consulting President Bruce Crain said.

The Alico grant application and project was enthusiastically supported by the Florida Congressional Delegation, as well as Arkansas Senators Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor and Arkansas Congressman Marion Berry.

Crain Consulting, Inc. is proud to announce the three new clients developing renewable energy and fuels facilities.

Kentucky Five Star Energy of Nebo, Kentucky is developing an ethanol plant in Northwest Kentucky. This plant that will be located in the heart of the corn-producing region of Kentucky will produce 50 million gallons of corn-based ethanol annually.

Mississippi Agricultural Products, Inc. is developing an integrated biorefinery that will utilize an anaerobic digester facility to produce methane gas from agricultural wastes. The gas will then be used to produce biodiesel and eventually ethanol at the plant site to be located in South Mississippi.

Alico Inc. of LaBelle, Florida is exploring alternative methods of producing ethanol from South Florida crops such as sugarcane.

Crain Consulting is assisting these and other clients in identifying and securing the optimum sources of public and private sector financing available for renewable energy companies.

Firm Helping Alt-Energy Projects Work Across U.S.
4/17/06 MISSISSIPPI BUSINESS JOURNAL
By: Becky Gillette, MBJ Contributing Writer

The stars are now aligning to move alternative energy production in the U.S. from the back burner to the forefront.

There has been a paradigm shift in the marketplace that means alternatives fuels like ethanol and biodiesel, plus alternatives sources of electricity generation, are now competitive in the marketplace, says consultant Bruce Crain, Crain Consulting, Jackson, which specializes in helping alternative energy producers put together financing and business plans to be successful.

Higher costs for oil have come at the same time that alternative energy technology has improved greatly.

“We don’t think we will ever see $1 per gallon gasoline again,” Crain said. “Secondly, the technologies that are being put in place to generate alternative energy and power sources are much better now. You can now generate energy from wood products and agricultural waste materials at a cost comparable to oil.”

Crain, who has been involved in promoting alternative energy for a decade now, recently spoke at the conference at the University of Florida, Gainesville, on the subject: Fueling the Future: The Role of Woody Biomass.

“My role at the conference, once all the innovations and technologies were presented, was to demonstrate how projects can be commercialized using sources of funding from both the public and private sectors,” he said. “There are a lot of new players in the alternative energy market right now. You have people not just from the agricultural and energy sectors, but people with good strong business qualifications who are now looking at alternative energy as a means of generating a profit as well as creating a sustainable source of domestic power and fuel. The price of oil and natural gas has gotten so high that alternate fuels and sources of power are now competitive in the marketplace.”

There are 214 million acres of forest land in the Southeastern U.S. A large amount of that forest land in southern parts of Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama has been destroyed by the hurricane. Crain said technologies exist today to convert that waste material and damaged timberlands to electricity or to fuels such as diesel and possibly ethanol.

“There are companies currently in the U.S. and all over the world who are converting woody biomass and agricultural waste material to electricity and fuels,” Crain said. “The damage created by Katrina presented an opportune time to demonstrate in this country how technologies could be implemented not just to have new fuel and electricity sources, but create new economies based on the natural resources currently available to these small Mississippi communities, many of whom are in dire need of an economic shot in the arm.”

While wood waste is primarily used to fuel boilers, currently a California company is taking waste from vineyards and orchards to generate electricity that is sold on the grid. Technologies also exist to convert wood waste into diesel (see www.choren.com).

Crain works to take promising alternative energy products from the drawing board to the marketplace by helping clients access all sources of private and public sector financing.

“We show clients how to leverage funding sources to make a project economically feasible,” he said. “Sources of funding may include grants, tax credits, state and local government incentives such as bond programs, government guaranteed loans or direct loans. These programs coupled with private sector equity can be leveraged together to make a project economically feasible.”

Ten to twelve years ago Crain was working for the USDA when people first starting to explore ethanol, biodiesel and other forms of alternative energy. At that time, it was primarily the corn growers lobbying for ethanol and soybean growers lobbying for biodiesel. Crain says since that time the supporters for these renewable fuels have expanded to include non-agricultural interests.

“This has been created by new technology and more sophisticated business players in the arena,” Crain said. “There is also an acknowledgement on the part of the American public and Washington that, like never before, we need more reliable domestic sources of renewable fuels and power.”

The 2002 Farm Bill represented major progress. Since then an Energy Bill has been passed. Crain said now with the war in Iraq underscoring problems with reliance on energy imported from volatile Middle Eastern countries, the Administration has expressed strong support for the development and commercialization of renewable fuels and power sources.

“And, unlike before, there is a realization that ethanol and biodiesel can be produced from sources other than corn or soybeans,” Crain said. “The president has expressed support for developing lignocellulosic ethanol and other fuels from other domestic resources.”

Crain explains that the original diesel motor was built to run on peanut oil. The U.S. was basically a carbohydrate based economy before World War II. When World War II occurred, the country needed quick, cheap sources of energy, and oil was available. So the economy quickly changed to one based on carbohydrates to hydrocarbons.

“What we are seeing now is a back to the future syndrome,” Crain said. “We are looking at technologies that were advocated prior to World War II. With market conditions changing, it is now more important than ever to take ideas advocated previously, expand on them and develop sources of fuel and power that can make us more self reliant and at the same time use these new sources of fuels and power to create new economic opportunities for communities in desperately in need of them.

“Congress has a done a good job of developing sources of funding for renewable energy. However, learning of these programs and how they can be used together is still a challenge for entrepreneurs. That is the role of our company and how we are assisting clients all over the country in projects as diverse as an ethanol plant in Kentucky, a municipal solid waste to electricity plant in Utah, and a company in Louisiana developing a wood pellet manufacturing plant that will produce pellets for wood burning stoves sold in the Midwest and Northeast, as well as foreign markets.”

In the past five years, Crain consulting has assisted clients in 43 different states. Most of his clients are from outside of Mississippi.

The forest industry has been particularly support of alternative fuels.

Crain said, “Forestry is the second largest industry in Mississippi, and that presents great opportunities to produce energy from Mississippi forests. Mississippi is well positioned to take advantage of these technologies because of our vast resources that could be used to convert forestry and agricultural materials to renewable fuels and power.”

Some examples of the type of clients Crain works with include Utah Valley Energy (UVE) of Orem, Utah, an independent renewable energy company that will utilize a unique energy process to produce electric power. This process will take place by converting municipal solid waste or landfill material through gasification into a syngas or biogas much like natural gas.

“This in turn will be used to fuel a turbine generator producing environmentally safe, competitively priced and sustainable electric power,” Crain said. “UVE will utilize or recycle 100 percent of all waste material entering the facility.”

Crain Consulting also helped obtain a $20 million loan from the U.S. government for a Georgia client, the first loan of its kind made to a privately-owned power company that will produce and sell renewable energy. The new power plant will utilize plasma arc technology to convert used automobile and truck tires into energy. Once produced, the energy will be sold to several electric power companies.

"We are pleased that our client was the first company of its kind to obtain this source of federal funding,” Crain said. “Not only will the plant produce renewable energy, but the use of tires and other solid wastes to produce the energy will help rid the planet of materials that to date have become a nuisance and environmental hazard".

Canton Mayor Fred Esco wants to open the doors for new business in his city. Canton has deep history, and most of it is in what's called a renewal zone, where business tax breaks are already available. Now, the incentive here will be even more because of Katrina Go-Zone incentives.

"This is the best opportunity I think we've had since the civil war to get our act together," says Leland Speed, Director of the Mississippi Development Authority. Speed was part of a workshop Wednesday in Canton. A packed house listened to business experts discuss all of the incentives available for starting or expanding a business in a Go-Zone area.

The most attractive incentives: 50 percent depreciation in one tax year on the purchase of assets or real estate. That amounts to huge tax savings. Or, financing at tax-exempt rates with the purchase of Go-Zone bonds. A developer can't use both. But there may be other avenues to get more out of the programs. "As we said in the presentation today, there are other programs that could be coupled with them to make a project work," says Bruce Crain of Crain Consulting in Jackson.

Certain ventures are exempt from Go-Zone benefits, including golf courses, massage parlors, hot tub or suntan facilities, liquor stores, gambling establishments, and animal racing properties.

Savvy developers have already jumped in. For example, John Burwell, Developer of Harborwalk by the reservoir, is taking advantage of the Go-Zone incentives. "As far as, say, our hotel, you can write off 50 percent of that in the first year. Our office building would fit the criteria for that, retail space, parking garages," he says.

Renovation of any historic buildings will enjoy a number of special incentives too. Go-Zone incentives must be taken advantage of within the next three years.

Crain Consulting is pleased to announce two additional clients that are working to produce alternative energy and market environmentally-friendly, bio-based industrial products. Utah Valley Energy (UVE) of Orem, Utah, is an independent renewable energy company that will utilize a unique energy process to produce electric power. This process will take place by converting municipal solid waste (MSW) or landfill material (through gasification) into a syngas or biogas much like natural gas. This in turn will be used to fuel a turbine generator producing environmentally safe, competitively priced and sustainable electric power. UVE will utilize or recycle 100% of all waste material entering the facility.

UVE’s products and services will be offered to local communities and municipalities that have a need for electric power and/or to eliminate landfill use or waste residues. Revenue will come from multiple streams such as recyclables, byproducts, and the sale of electric power. To learn more about Utah Valley Energy please visit their website at www.utahvalleyenergy.com.com.

Since 1984, International Lubricants Inc.(ILI) of Seattle, Washington has been a world leader in the development, marketing and sales of patented high performing lubricants and related products for the automotive, industrial, marine and agricultural industries. Unique patented chemicals are also used in the cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries. ILI, in collaboration with the US Departments of Defense and Agriculture, has spent millions of dollars in research, resulting in over 100 US and Foreign patents. ILI welcomes you to its website for more information about this company and its exciting line of bio-based, environmentally-friendly lubricants www.lubegard.com.

JACKSON - In 2001, Bruce Crain, a Columbia, Mississippi native and Ole Miss grad, left Fannie Mae to form a new company to answer the financing needs of developers and rural-based entrepreneurs. Oftentimes these are the entrepreneurs who are excluded from the financing necessary to make a dream a reality. Crain Consulting, a company specializing in securing financing for commercial, residential and agribusiness ventures, has developed a unique niche in the marketplace that has allowed them to assist clients in 40 states in the last four years. Even more amazing is that few in the Jackson area even knows they exist.

During the past four years Crain Consulting has identified and secured financing for deals as diversified as a $1.4 million financing for the purchase of land for a planned unit development in Mississippi; a $3.2 million, 30-year fixed rate, nonrecourse, financing for the acquisition of a 100-unit elderly apartment complex in Mississippi; and a $1.2 million in funding for the purchase of a King Air twin engine aircraft for Oklahoma client. The company has also put together a $100,000 short term working capital for a real estate development client in Oregon, a $300,000 CDBG grant for a Mississippi non-profit for a housing development; a $200,000 working capital loan for a historic restoration company; found $350,000 in below market rate financing for a Mississippi residential development, and come up with $1.3 million in government guaranteed funding for an Oregon-based turf company.

Still, what is most amazing is the place this small, Jackson-based firm has in the ever-growing renewable energy and bio-based product market. Crain Consulting president Bruce Crain is indeed the person the entrepreneurs call when trying to obtain financing that may involve government grants, tax credits, guarantees or direct loans. This is especially true when it comes to renewable energy projects using bio-diesel, ethanol, plasma arc, gasification of biomass and other sources that create new jobs in places in desperate need and reduce our reliance on foreign oil. This is for good reason. Just last year Crain obtained a $20 million direct loan for a Georgia-based renewable energy power plant. This direct loan was the first direct loan of its kind ever made by the United States government to privately-owned power plant. This plant will use plasma arc technology to convert tires into a renewable energy source for rural electric power plants in Georgia.

Clients from Ohio, Connecticut, Oregon, California, New York, and Montana have all sought out Crain’s expertise which they feel is essential to making a renewable energy or bio-based product company become commercially viable. Even a German company backed by Volkswagen and Chrysler-Daimler that wants to develop new plants to create diesel from cellulose material sought out Crain and his Louisiana and Georgia clients during a recent “U.S Department of Energy Bio-refinery Conference in Washington, DC. He credits his expertise mainly to his time at USDA in the 1990’s which exposed him to this renewable energy and bio-based product market.

What makes Crain Consulting unique? It is the only company in the entire United States that specializes in the commercialization of renewable energy and bio-based product companies. Crain Consulting’s biggest asset, other than its CEO’s international reputation, experience, and massive and diverse Rolodex, is its knowledge of programs that can be accessed by companies wishing to take a technology from the laboratory to the marketplace. After passage of the 2002 Farm Bill by Congress that ushered in many new incentives for the commercialization of renewable energy and products, Bruce Crain was the only person who wasn’t a commodity trade association executive invited to a private briefing at USDA to discuss the changes this new legislation would generate in the marketplace. Crain has parlayed his access to government officials and lending sources into a one-of-a-kind business that is known in renewable energy and bio-based circles everywhere.

When asked about how his company became a leader in this field, Crain says it was based primarily on “the price of oil, change in consumer attitude and the realization that these technologies offer rural areas the economic diversity that previously eluded them. Being natives of Mississippi, it is easy for us to see how this new ‘bio-based economy’ offers opportunities never before imagined. Renewable energy and bio-based products allow us to grow rural economies by fully utilizing our natural and human resources, thereby helping to preserve and enhance the very rural communities that make Mississippi special. All we are doing is following the market and helping our clients stake out a seat at this new economic table.”

Bruce Crain's diversified background and credentials are impressive. Prior to establishing Crain Consulting, Crain served as director of Fannie Mae’s Mississippi Partnership Office that was in charge of administering HouseMississippi, Fannie Mae’s five-year, $2.5 billion investment plan designed to increase affordable rental and homeownership opportunities for low, moderate, and first-time homebuyers in Mississippi.

Prior to joining Fannie Mae, Crain served as executive director of the ARC Corporation, a wholly owned corporation of the U.S. Department of Agriculture serving as a venture capital firm that invested in companies attempting to commercialize new industrial and consumer (nonfood, non-feed) products made from agricultural and forestry materials. Prior to that, Crain was vice president of legislative affairs for the Savings & Community Bankers of America (now known as America’s Community Bankers) in Washington, D.C., where he worked with Congress, banking regulators and industry leaders on housing and financial issues.

Crain received the Fannie Mae Southeastern Region Franchise Preservation Award for 1998. He is married to the former Patricia Horne and they have two sons, Cameron, age 12, and Conor, age 10.

Through it all, Crain has retained his great passion for the work. “I love it,” he says, “because it allows me to use my complete knowledge to assist entrepreneurs in making their dreams come true.” Indeed, now is the time to place an emphasis on renewable energy and bio-based products in this country. And having the leader in making this happen based right here in the Metro-area is definitely the way we want it.

Crain Consulting is pleased to announce a new Montana-based client, Invizeon.

Invizeon Corporation is a provider of a web-based critical communications control platform. Their product provides essential communication capabilities for those in federal, state and local government as well as the nonprofit and private sectors. It is intended to function wherever critical or time sensitive communication must be effectively managed across a large number of people, agencies, or groups. Invizeon's product provides a highly secure, interoperable, flexible software solution.

Through Invizeon's system, communiqués are delivered concurrently or sequentially at the customer’s direction to all standard communications devices ranging from wired and wireless telephony, email, IM, satellite, and wireless internet devices to public addressing and all other digital IP addressable appliances. The applications can be broadly classified as security/emergency related, machine-to-machine, or customer and employee communication enhancements. The system can accept input from digital sources to generate automated alerts with or without human intervention. Such inputs include sensors, computer generated signals, satellite signals, seismic and biological monitoring devices and the like. The system is designed to stand alone or to be integrated into other larger systems. To learn more about Invizeon, please visit their website at www.invizeon.com.

Crain Consulting, Inc. is pleased to announce the approval of a $20 million loan for a Georgia client. The loan, made directly to the client by the United States government, and is the first loan of its kind made to a privately-owned power company that will produce and sell renewable energy.

The new power plant will be located in central Georgia and will utilize plasma arc technology to convert used automobile and truck tires into energy. Once produced, the energy will be sold to several electric power companies throughout the state. The company plans to construct many similar facilities throughout the nation in the future.

"We are pleased that our client was the first company of its kind to obtain this source of Federal funding. Not only will the plant produce renewable energy, but the use of tires and other solid wastes to produce the energy will help rid the planet of materials that to date have become a nuisance and environmental hazard", Crain Consulting president Bruce Crain said.

The facility is enthusiastically supported by the Georgia State Legislature and Georgia United States Senators Zell Miller and Saxby Chambliss.

Crain Consulting is pleased to announce its association with two Louisiana organizations.

Vanguard Synfuels of Pollack, Louisiana is converting a facility previously used to manufacture ammonia into a state-of-the-art biorefinery. Vanguard plans to use the facility to manufacture and distribute multiple alternative fuels including biodiesel and ethanol. Vanguard, which is owned by logging interests in the area, plans to utilize available wood waste to create new fuels thereby making it a leader in the development of renewable fuels. For more information about Vanguard Synfuels visit the company's website at www.vanguardsynfuels.com.

The Southern Loggers Cooperative, based in Tioga, Louisiana and composed of loggers in a three-state region, has retained Crain Consulting to examine the potential for creating and owning new fueling centers that can increase efficiency and reduce operational costs to its members.

• Georgia company utilizing plasma arc technology create energy from waste material
• Florida-based company manufacturing ethanol from citrus
• Kentucky company developing an ethanol plant
• Connecticut-based renewable energy company
• Louisiana-based biorefinery company and logger cooperative
• Florida-based company with technology that treats solid waste and creates a value-added endproducts
• Utah company developing a plant to convert MSW to electricity
• Louisiana company developing a wood pellet manufacturing plant
• Washington state company producting and selling vegetable oil-based lubricants to the automobile industry
• Georgia-based company developing carbon negative energy from biomass

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Bruce Crain | brucecrain@crainconsulting.net
P.O. Box 16783 | Jackson MS 39236
Phone: 601.957.3493 | Mobile: 601.613.2294
Fax: 601.914.5871