On July 1st, activists held a mock fundraiser for the troubled Australian coal company Ambre Energy at their Portland, Oregon office. The creative protest was part of an ongoing campaign to expose the truth about the company.

Despite its desire to build the first new coal export facilities in the Pacific Northwest, Ambre Energy continues to face massive public opposition andpermitting setbacks, while struggling to court investors. At the end of May, Ambre Energy’s removal-fill permit was delayed for an eighth time by Oregon’s Department of State Lands. And last year, Ambre was forced to give upsubstantial ownership shares to the private equity firm Resource Capital Funds (RCF) to avoid financial insolvency.

Now, Ambre is backing a public handout to the tune of two million dollars to fund its dirty coal export project on the Columbia River. Prioritizing coal and other dangerous fossil fuel projects means that other transportation projects will be ignored. Bike, pedestrian and public transit programs that promote lower carbon and affordable options just won’t happen.

This is why local activists performed in front of Ambre’s office to highlight the economic risks of coal exports. They’re asking folks to attend the July 17th hearing and give comments to the Oregon Transportation Commission opposing the misuse of public money.

We agree with Governor Kitzhaber when he said, “it is time once and for all to say no to coal export from the Pacific Northwest.” Using taxpayer money to finance risky fossil fuel projects sends the wrong message and certainly doesn’t move us toward a clean energy future.

Fortunately, communities across the west are winning the fight against coal. Whether at the mines in Montana or coal export terminal proposals in the Pacific Northwest, people are mobilizing. Thousands in Oregon and Washington have signed petitions urging  RCF executives  to drop their investment in Ambre Energy.

The State of Oregon Should not subsidize risky fossil fuel projects, backed by a company with a poor financial track record. We can do better than coal exports.

More event photos here!

crossposted from Greenpeaceblogs.com

In the face of the coal industry’s efforts to force coal export terminals on the Pacific Northwest, thousands of people in Oregon and Washington have been working together to protect our communities. We have submitted comments, organized rallies, called on our elected officials to join us, and much more, because we know that these coal export projects would fuel climate change, threaten our health, and damage the environment.

We’re winning the fight against coal exports, and Ambre Energy – the company behind coal export proposals near Longview, Washington, and the Port of Morrow, Oregon – is struggling. But a private equity firm called Resource Capital Funds (RCF) has swooped in to finance the company and its coal export proposals on the Columbia River.

We can stop this. If we can convince RCF to pull its investment, the proposed terminals could soon be out of funds. RCF is just looking for a quick buck. That’s why we must show RCF that backing coal exports means a long fight with us, not easy money!

Send RCF a message to pull its investment in coal exports now, because we’re committed to protecting the Pacific Northwest from coal — for the long haul.

In the past year, we have made extraordinary progress towards stopping coal exports. Of the six original proposals, only three remain! Gov. Kitzhaber of Oregon has come out against coal exports. And Ambre Energy, the company behind two of the remaining proposed coal export terminals, would likely be bankrupt without RCF.

Together we have written letters, called, rallied, and it’s made a difference. Now, to stop two more terminals, we must stand stronger than ever against coal exports.

We need to show RCF that its plan to come in, turn a quick profit, and head out again won’t work – because we will stand in its way at every turn.

Everywhere, there are signs that the coal industry is seriously ailing. Coal plants around the country are shutting down and prices are falling. Speculators like RCF are just trying to squeeze every bit of profit they can from this dying industry. But we won’t let them.

Stand for the Pacific Northwest now. The bigger we are, the faster we can shoo the vulture capitalists out of our states, and stop coal exports once and for all.

Let’s stop coal exports!

crossposted from Greenpeaceblogs.com

The coal industry’s efforts to export huge amounts of taxpayer-owned coal from Montana and Wyoming to Asia has generated unprecedented opposition in the Pacific Northwest - tens of thousands of people have rallied, attended public hearings, and called on their elected officials to oppose coal export terminals that would disrupt and pollute communities and pose one of the biggest threats to the climate of any fossil fuel project in the world.

This controversy, along with the high risk nature of these proposals, has meant that many investors have avoided backing them. A major signal of these investor concerns came in January 2014, when Goldman Sachs dropped its coal export investment, especially since it followed a report from Goldman Sachs’ own analysts titled “The window for thermal coal investment is closing.”

But one key coal export investor apparently hasn’t yet received the memo. Ross Bhappu, a partner at a Denver-based private equity firm called Resource Capital Funds, has been the main source of money for Ambre Energy, the shaky Australian company behind two of the three remaining coal export proposals in Oregon and Washington, the Millennium Bulk Terminal and Morrow Pacific Project proposals on the Columbia River. That’s why ten community and environmental groups wrote a letter to Ross Bhappu last month, calling on him and his firm to drop its investment in Ambre Energy and its controversial and risky coal export proposals.

That’s also why we’ve launched a new website, www.RossBhappu.com. The website details how Ross Bhappu has used a $110 million bet on Ambre Energy - along with the company’s difficulties attracting other outside investment - to take more control of the company at the expense of other shareholders. We want to make sure that elected officials, investors, and communities that would be impacted by coal export projects know who is bankrolling these proposals. So check out the new website, read the details about Ross Bhappu’s bet on coal exports, and help us share the information. We’ll update the site with the latest news, so if you have a tip, let us know.

Today, ten organizations sent an open letter to Ross Bhappu, a partner at Resource Capital Funds, calling on him to drop his firm’s investment in Ambre Energy, the company behind two of the proposed coal export terminals in the Pacific Northwest.

While JP Morgan Chase and Bank of America make headlines almost daily,Resource Capital Funds (RCF) is far from a household name. However, this small Denver-based private equity firm is now at the center of a controversial plan to build new coal export terminals and sell publicly-owned coal overseas.

Resource Capital Funds is a self-described “mining-focused private equity firm” that prides itself in its providing strategic guidance to the management teams of the companies in which it invests. Since 2011, RCF and Ross Bhappu have played an important role in keeping the financially troubled Ambre Energy afloat.

Bhappu’s early involvement in Ambre Energy was best documented in a 2013 report from Sightline Institute, Caveat Investor:

The past several years have seen Ambre post massive losses, lose virtually all hope of developing its Australian mining project, enter into a contentious lawsuit with its mining partner that ended in a costly settlement, assume hundreds of millions of dollars of long-term cleanup and pension obligations, stumble over new regulatory hurdles, take on high-interest loans, and postpone its most promising export project…

All of which raises a question: how has this troubled company managed to keep itself afloat?

The answer is a deep-pocketed financier who now sits on Ambre’s board: Ross Bhappu, a principal at mining-focused, Denver-based venture capital firm Resource Capital Funds (RCF). A review of Ambre’s financial statements suggests that an infusion of cash from Resource Capital Funds may have saved Ambre from bankruptcy at the end of 2011—and allowed the company to pursue its risky coal export ventures. Dr. Bhappu’s venture capital fund put up the Aus$60 million in capital, plus a separate $25 million loan, that allowed Ambre to take possession of Level 3’s coal mines in November 2011. A month later, RCF injected an additional Aus$10 million into Ambre, after another investor pulled its money out of the company. And in December 2012, Bhappu’s firm expanded its earlier Aus$25 million loan to a line of credit totaling $50 million—$30 million of which Ambre had used by late December 2012.

Since Caveat Investor was published, Ambre’s financial situation has gone from bad to worse. Facing losses up to $30 million in a six month window, the company has since abandoned any plans to build mines or facilities in Australia, shed its coal-to-liquids division and canceled plans to build a terminal on the Gulf Coast. It failed to attract the $70 million required to settle its lawsuit with Cloud Peak and buy out the Decker coal mine. And Ambre has yet to receive any necessary permits for its two proposed West Coast coal export terminals, as already unprecedented public opposition continues to grow.

Ambre Energy’s PR team has pointed to the fact that all start-up companies can take a while to get on their feet and the coal industry assures us that there is abundant demand for US coal overseas and Ambre’s export terminals represent real economic development opportunities for local communities, even if it will take a few years to get construction underway. However, despite the coal industry’s best spin, the emerging Wall Street consensus seems to be that coal exports are a financially risky bet.

Over the past year, financial institutions such as Citibank, Deustche Bank, Bernstein, HSBC, and Goldman Sachs have issued analyst reports painting a bleak outlook for the seaborne coal market. Goldman Sachs recently withdrew its investment in Carrix, the company behind the proposed Gateway Pacific Terminal, six months after releasing a report titled, “The window for thermal coal investment is closing.”

With Wall Street giving export proposals the coal shoulder and community opposition mounting, Ross Bhappu and RCF seized an opportunity to take control of Ambre Energy. Last month, Ambre Energy’s shareholders approveda deal that would boost RCF’s share of the company from 19.9 percent to 26.5 percent, and give RCF the option of further increasing its share to 55 percent. An independent audit of the deal found that it was “not fair” to Ambre shareholders, but was nevertheless “reasonable,” since they had little other choice. The alternative was insolvency.

In other words – while established coal companies suffer major losses and Wall Street firms issue warnings about the shrinking global thermal coal market, Resource Capital Funds is cementing its position as the lifeline for a struggling coal start-up with long odds for success. And with that role, comes added public scrutiny.

That’s why ten organizations wrote today, urging Dr. Bhappu to heed the environmental, financial, and reputational risks of developing coal export terminals and mines and withdraw RCF’s investment in Ambre Energy. The open letter details several risks to Ambre Energy’s coal export proposals, including unprecedented public opposition, unacceptable health and environmental impacts, and challenges to existing coal mining infrastructure.

Resource Capital Funds involvement also raises new questions for communities, regulators, and elected officials in the Pacific Northwest and Interior West. If coal export terminals and mines are too risky for the banks that once happily bet on subprime mortgages and a housing bubble, and are now the domain of risk-hungry private equity firms and flailing coal companies, should we be allowing these folks to take a gamble with our health and environment?


by Kelly Mitchell, crossposted from greenpeaceblogs.com