As the Administration’s push for alternative fuels grows stronger, Congress is set to consider H.R. 1380, which would create very generous tax credits to manufacturers who retrofit existing work vehicles to run on natural gas rather than on that terrifying global menace known as oil, and very generous subsidies to natural gas vehicle consumers: $7500 per car and a whopping $64,000 for heavy-duty trucks and 18-wheelers. It’s common knowledge in DC that Texas hedge-fund operator and natural gas-magnate T. Boone Pickens is the force behind this bi-partisan, pork-laden legislation, possibly because his natural gas empire would greatly profit from the sudden influx of billions of taxpayer dollars in the form of subsidies listed in the bill.
But hidden behind the scenes is another multi-billionaire, one with a much more sinister motive than mere profit. A man who’s vast fortune of nearly $7 billion is being used to subvert nearly every American institution to conform with his dream of a worldwide socialist utopia.
George Soros.
According to the website GuruFocus, which tracks the investment habits and portfolio trends of some of the world’s richest people, George Soros has made some intrigiung investments into alternative fuel companies of late, specifically those at the forefront of natural gas. This would not be so troubling except that, as GuruFocus points out, Soros has accurately predicted both economic bubbles and quickly growing industries. As a result, Soros’s funds have turned out a 30% return on investments since their inception.
One of the stocks Soros invested in recently is Westport Innovations (WPST), a global supplier of “solutions” that allow vehicles to operate on clean-burning fuels, such as natural gas. In fact, they are the world’s leading engineer of natural gas engines. Westport is currently working with Caterpillar to develop a natural-gas powered engine that would work in a number of utility vehicles, all of which would be eligible for the subsidies Congress is now considering. Soros’s investment funds have pumped about $122 million into WPST, and he’s added to his control as recently as December and March, when he picked up over a million shares, bringing his total to 5.5 million shares.
No other major investor shares his rosy outlook for natural gas engines, and the stock has barely crept up during the time Soros has held it, leading many to suspect Soros knows of a major future development. Could that development be Congress’s NAT GAS act? It seems likely.
Many Republican legislators who once supported the bill have pulled their names and yes votes from the NAT GAS act, and we’d encourage still more. Not only is the bill a dramatic waste of taxpayer dollars for Chevy Volt-style technology, but it is a manipulation of the free market designed to help a billionaire who needs the public to accept his technology. It could cost Americans thousands of jobs as the resulting artificially high price of natural gas destroys the manufacturing industry and crushes consumer confidence. And, there is a high possibility that Congress’s masochistic desire to prop up flagging alternative energy sources could end up funding one of today’s greatest threats to American democracy.
Very little other convincing should be needed to drop the NAT GAS act like a hot engine.