The Nation - News from April 12, 1987

The government might have to pick up the $67.4-million cost of a 90% completed Louisiana ethanol production plant being built by a company owned by Saudi Arabian arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi, the Washington Post reported. Unless a new investor can soon be found for the financially troubled project, the Energy Department will be stuck with the plant, the paper reported. The government had guaranteed loans from a financial consortium headed by the Bank of New England to Agrifuels Refining Co., a Louisiana firm owned by a subsidiary of Khashoggi’s U.S. holding company, Triad America Corp. But Triad filed for bankruptcy and Agrifuels was unable to finance the plant’s start-up, according to the paper.