Ben, I have two words for you: carbon credits
Planktos, a Foster City company with no sales, 20 employees no employees and less that $15,000 in cash as of June 30, said Wednesday in a press release it secured up to $2 million in a private placement by an investor it didn’t name.
(I’ve been told via e-mail by Planktos Chief Operating Officer William Coleman that in fact the company has “13 employees in Foster City and 7 on the Weatherbird currently berthed in Ft. Lauderdale. — JD 9/17/07)
The investment valued Planktos at $1 a share. A stock chart on the company’s Web site was last updated Aug. 15, when the shares traded at $1.04. The shares, which trade over the counter, closed Wednesday at 54 cents.
The company is a descendant of a business called eWorld Travel that was incorporated in Nevada in 1998 to provide Internet-based travel services. That entity has changed its name three times since then, to GYK Ventures in 2002, to Diatom in 2005, and to its current identity, Planktos, last March.
The company is currently “engaging in global eco-restoration projects to revive dwindling forests and ocean plankton ecosystems.” It hopes to cash in on the “rapidly expanding multi-billion-dollar market” for carbon credits designed to help fight global warming. It currently has projects to restore plankton plant life underwater and to reforest places above ground.
Russ George was appointed as the company’s chief executive and chief financial officer in March. “Mr. George’s experience includes a classical education in ecology followed by business experience in life resource industries,” according to the company’s annual report.
George is the company’s third CEO in less than a year. Like his predecessors George receives no salary. Nor does he appear to own any shares of the company.
Plans are to spend $1.4 million of the new funds to “begin the first voyage of the RV Weatherbird II,” the company’s research vessel used for its “ocean plankton restoration technology.” The other $600,000 will be used for “the planting of indigenous trees in the national forests of Hungary.”
Planktos says “it will soon be providing regular progress updates on the status of these two world-class projects.”
We, and the company’s new mystery investor, will be watching.
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Potential investors should be aware that the Planktos iron dumping scheme is highly controversial and faces potential legal problems.
The Planktos scheme has been criticized by a number of scientists and environmental groups, both Congress and the EPA have raised questions, and the government of Ecuador and international bodies such as the International Maritime Organization are also concerned.
A Wall Street Journal blog has a good overview of the controversy — you can read it here: http://blogs.wsj.com/energy/2007/08/16/upset-about-an-offset/
Nick Berning
Friends of the Earth
This blog entry is simply wrong. Planktos doesn’t have “no employees” — it has 10+ employees (including myself), for the past 18 months, located here in the SF Bay Area and on our research ship. Planktos is a member of both the CMTA (California Manufacturers Trade Assn) and the local SVLG (Silicon Valley Leadership Group), and is a regular attendees and contributor to the California Air Resources Board meetings which are currently hammering out the specifics of AB32.
As Nick Berning mentioned above, yes, ocean iron fertilization is a controversial technique. Yes, there are some people opposed to continuted research in this area. There are also some people opposed to research in stem cell therapy, genetic engineering, biotechnology, artificial intelligence, nuclear energy, and practially every other new technology that comes out.
Controversy or not, let’s focus on the facts: ecological restoration, whether terrestrial or oceanic, is crucial to mankind’s ability to clean up the damage we’ve done to this planet. Planktos is pushing forward in this crucial field, and intends to continue doing so as long as we are blessed with investors who share that vision.
Jack, your note to ‘Ben’ unfortunately reflects little real knowledge of the day-to-day business facts describing Silicon Valley start up Planktos Inc.
Planktos’ mission to restore ecosystem productivity via new forests and revitalized ocean plankton communities reflects a ten-year effort on Russ George’s part to address both global climate change and ocean decline. As Founder, President and CEO of Planktos for the past 2 1/2 years, his commitment has been unwavering.
Planktos draws on the expertise and commitment of no fewer than 20 employees in California and Florida. CFO Michael Chinn (not Russ George) has been hard at work for the past 2 years, as the company’s website has reported during this same period.
The 52-week history of Planktos share price (ticker: PLKT) as ranged from $0.05 to $2.56. Share price varies precisely because the company is still in start up mode; volatility is not unusual at this stage in the company’s growth.
We hope you and other readers will indeed stay tuned as Planktos (and its subsidiary KlifaFa Kft, based in Budapest, as reported in today’s New York Times) brings ultra low cost, ecologically beneficial greenhouse gas offsets to market — in California and in other regions of the world.
Bill Coleman, COO
Planktos Inc.
I’m late weiging in with my comment, but that may be just as well. I just wanted to say: Russ George has next to no education in ecology. He didn’t take kindly to “pompous professors” telling him what to do, so he dropped out of the University of Utah without earning a degree in anything. I won’t say he has no business experience, but all of it was negative. I confidently predict that Planktos will be another one.
Of course, the latest little setback in which the Spanish Authorities refused to let the Planktos vessel Weatherbird II to enter port in the Canary Islands will not inspire investor confidence. The ship is now heading to Morrocco to refuel and reprovision and still no sign of any experimenst being approved. By anyone. This is increasingly beginning to look like a bit of a scam.