Sludge Watch ==> Was manure to power just bull? - California

[maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca]

Was manure-to-power venture just bull?
12.sep.06
Los Angeles Times
Lance Pugmire
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-moriarty12sep12,0,4021910.story?coll=la-home-headlines
As he sold investors on an improbable plan for turning Inland Empire cow 
manure into electricity, W. Patrick Moriarty had an answer for everything.
With a folksy delivery, the Orange County businessman promised cutting-edge 
technology, a respected engineering firm and tax-exempt financing to extract 
methane gas from mountains of manure and use it to generate enough power to 
light a small city.
What Moriarty and his business partner, Wayne Stephens, didn't tell those 
who altogether invested more than $10 million was that their company, Chino 
Organic Power Inc., had no licensed technology, no equipment, no permits — 
not even a guaranteed supply of manure.
Although manure-to-electricity plants have been used on a small scale to 
turn water-polluting cow waste into power, they are not particularly 
cost-effective and have never produced close to the amount of electricity 
Moriarty envisioned, documents and interviews show.
Another thing Moriarty didn't tell investors was that he had gone to prison 
in the 1980s in what then-U.S. Atty. Robert C. Bonner called "the most 
significant corruption case in recent California history."
Not surprisingly, the lofty energy plan has come crashing down, followed by 
a bankruptcy and accusations from angry investors, a number of whom have 
filed lawsuits alleging fraud by Moriarty and Stephens, a San Bernardino 
County businessman.