PRINCIPALS AND ASSOCIATES:

DOUGLAS A. DURANTE is President and Chief Operating Officer for Durante Associates and is the founder and Executive Director of the Clean Fuels Development Coalition (CFDC), a non-profit organization supporting clean transportation fuels such as renewable alcohols and ethers. This organization has a broad-based membership that includes automotive, agricultural, and engineering organizations throughout the country.

Mr. Durante has been working in the fields of energy, transportation, and the environment since 1977 when he was a staff member of the National Transportation Policy Study Commission for Congress. He later became the Director of Public Affairs for the National Alcohol Fuels Commission established by Congress and chaired by U.S. Senator Birch Bayh. He served an assignment as a special assistant in the Office of Alcohol Fuels for the U.S. Department of Energy. Mr. Durante has been involved in a number of legislative initiatives at the federal level for energy, transportation, and public works projects related to areas such as alternative fuels, coal slurry pipelines, international trade, agriculture, and tax policy.

In addition to his work with the CFDC, Mr. Durante currently represents a number of clients before Congress and serves as a liaison to federal agencies such as the Departments of Energy, Agriculture, and EPA. He regularly develops legislative, regulatory, and financial assistance strategies for his clients. He has extensive experience in media relations and has often appeared on radio and television as an expert guest or commentator. He directs Durante Associates ethanol development projects including feasibility studies, market assessments, and political and public relation strategies. He has been involved in dozens of ethanol studies in the U.S. and internationally.

He served on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Clean Fuels Advisory Committee, the U.S. Department of Energy's Business Roundtable Advisory Group, and the working group of the Federal Fleet Conversion Task Force. Most recently he served on the Biomass Research and Development Technical Advisory Committee and chaired the Fuels Subcommittee. Mr. Durante holds a B.A. degree in English and Journalism from Elon University in North Carolina and has completed a number of graduate courses in business and government affairs. He was named to Who's Who among Outstanding Young Americans in 1992 and 1993.

RAYMOND W. DURANTE is Chairman of the Board of Durante Associates, Inc. He has over 50 years of professional experience and has held senior management positions in industry and the federal government. The most noteworthy of these include: design and project engineering on the Savannah River Project and Nuclear Submarine Program, Industry Exchange Executive for the U.S. Department of Interior, Vice President for Energy Programs for Westinghouse Electric Corporation, Executive Vice President of the Schneider Group of Pittsburgh, and currently President of Durante Associates, Inc.

Mr. Durante managed a major contract with the Canadian government aimed at introducing Canadian nuclear technology into the United States. Mr. Durante assisted in setting up and managing a U.S. company which served as the applicant in the submittal of the CANDU reactor design to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission for certification. He managed a group of specialized nuclear licensing consultants and served as liaison between AECL and the U.S. utilities and U.S. government agencies. He participated in the Plutonium Disposition Program initiated by the National Academy of Sciences to determine how mixed oxide fuel elements could be burned in CANDU reactors. Durante Associates has represented a dozen major U.S. corporations in business development activities for both government and commercial programs.

Prior to forming Durante Associates, Mr. Durante was Vice President for Advanced Energy Programs with the Westinghouse Electric Corporation responsible for government and utility research and development programs. He participated in many of Westinghouse's successful programs for the operation and management of DOE Weapons Laboratory and waste management sites. He was also involved in other energy programs such as solar, magnetohydrodynamics, cold gasification, and fuel cell development. In 1966, he was selected by President Johnson as an Industry Exchange Employee and assigned to the U.S. Department of Interior to manage a large nuclear desalination project.

Mr. Durante holds degrees of Mechanical Engineer and Master of Science in Industrial Engineering from Stevens Institute of Technology. He is a graduate of the Industrial College of the Armed Forces and has completed technical and business courses at Georgia Tech and Harvard Business School. In 1986 he was elected Fellow for the American Nuclear Society and in 1994 he was elected to the New York Academy of Sciences. He has been involved in a number of engineering professional societies and has served in many management positions with the American Nuclear Society. In February 1995, he was named President of the Food Safeguards Council, a new non-profit organization established to promote and develop food irradiation processes.

LEE ACKERMAN has had a distinguished 30 year career with substantial experience in projects relating to energy, construction, mining, telecommunications and packaging. Mr. Ackerman has spent the last 4 years performing development and consulting work in the renewable fuels industry. Prior to that, he spent 24 years working for Peter Kiewit Sons’ Inc. a multi-billion dollar corporation. Mr. Ackerman has directly engaged in ethanol projects for the past several years developing business plans and pre-feasibility studies for early stage projects as well as assisting in site selection and raising of capital.

He was a partner in the Cornhusker Energy ethanol facility in Lexington, Nebraska. His areas of expertise include feasibility studies, site selection, capital procurement, permitting, and the negotiating of design-build contracts for both biodiesel and ethanol projects. Prior to his focus on renewable energy projects, Mr. Ackerman spent the last 12 years of his career at Peter Kiewit Sons’ Inc. in the treasury department, retiring in 1997 as Assistant Treasurer Peter Kiewit Sons’ Inc. and Treasurer of Kiewit Construction Group Inc. His responsibilities included managing, coordinating, and projecting receipts on over 300 construction projects at any given time; maintaining bank relations; overseeing borrowing lines and letters of credit for all Kiewit operations; managing the investment portfolio; and coordinating the employee stock program with funding financial institutions. In addition to maintaining his own consulting practice, he works with Durante Associates on a variety of ethanol projects and directs many of the firm’s site selection activities.

He holds a BS in Business Administration from the University of Nebraska-Kearney. He has a certificate of Management Accountancy and a certificate of Treasury Management.

WILLIAM C. HOLMBERG retired as Lt. Colonel, USMC in 1970 after 20 years of distinguished service. For the last 20 years, Mr. Holmberg has been involved in public policy issues involving energy, the environment, agriculture and other related areas both as a government employee and in the private sector. He held a variety of positions with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency dealing with such issues as nuclear power plants, federal pesticide programs, as well as intergovernmental relations and regional operations. Mr. Holmberg later worked at the Federal Energy Administration and the U.S. Department of Energy where he directed field operations including the Domestic Policy Review of the Solar Energy Program. He later served in the Office of Alcohol Fuels directing marketing and education efforts. Since entering the private sector, Mr. Holmberg has been a consultant to the Mayor of Chicago for electric power and efficiency programs and was the president of his own energy efficient lighting company. During this time he was also engaged as a consultant to the ethanol fuels industry and has been a Washington lobbyist and advocate for renewable energy, energy efficiency, and environmental programs. Mr. Holmberg recently served a special assignment on the staff of U.S. Senator Ben Nelson as the coordinator for the renewable fuels standard debate within the Senate energy bill. Successfully completing that assignment and helping the energy bill pass the Senate, Mr. Holmberg works with Durante Associates on a variety of projects.

TERRY A. RUSE has more than 35 years of experience in the motor fuel business dealing with gasoline, diesel, ethanol, and other fuels. He has been directly involved in the U.S. ethanol industry since its inception in the late 1970s as a plant manager, fuels trader, and project developer. Until recently, Mr. Ruse was Chief Operating Officer of Agri-Ethanol Products, LLC and Agri-Ethanol Products NC, LLC in Raleigh, North Carolina. Mr. Ruse successfully completed feasibility studies and a business plan for a major fuel-grade ethanol facility to be located in North Carolina, and continues to oversee that project and several others across the country. In the North Carolina project and others, Mr. Ruse has participated in financing activities with major New York based lending institutions and private equity providers across the country. He has extensive experience in plant site assessment, feasibility studies, rail and truck transportation planning and negotiation, and permitting. He managed a fuel-grade ethanol facility and oversaw various expansions and additions to ethanol facilities.

Mr. Ruse works with Durante Associates on a variety of ethanol projects, particularly related to early stage development, siting, marketing, and feedstock supply and acquisition. He manages his own firm, Projects Plus. LLC, in addition to those projects in which he collaborates with Durante Associates. Mr. Ruse was appointed by Governor Keating in 2002 as his representative on the Governors’ Ethanol Coalition for the state of Oklahoma. Mr. Ruse is a former board member of the Clean Fuels Foundation and is a member of the Clean Fuels Development Coalition (CFDC). He was recognized by CFDC in 2004 as one of the Pioneers of the Ethanol Industry.

ROBERT E. SWEENEY has extensive experience in government and utility energy matters. He has performed and managed studies involving licensing, legislative, public affairs, and policy matters, and has supported regulatory affairs and operation of major nuclear facilities. He has conducted research, interviews, and prepared white papers in response to concerns of utilities, the public and regulators on matters pertaining to the safety, licensing, and policy affecting commercial and federal issues of nuclear facilities. Mr. Sweeney has developed technical and regulatory publications for the electric utility industry and conducted forums on nuclear economics, safety, and regulatory interface and affairs. He managed the successful licensing of the Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant and St. Were Unit 2, and supports the affairs of other nuclear plants throughout the United States. Mr. Sweeney's experience also includes marketing and operations. He has prepared monthly business plans on behalf of engineering and technical services companies, manages private and government proposal efforts, and successfully secured new clients in energy sectors previously not marketed or explored by similar firms. He is currently a senior consultant and officer of the IBEX Group, Inc. and IBEX Engineering Services, Inc. and serves as a primary associate to Durante Associates, Inc. Prior to that, he held engineering and management positions with EBASCO Services, Inc. and Southern Technical Services, Inc. He received a BSME from the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, has taken economics courses at Georgetown University, and is a member of the American Management Association, American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the American Nuclear Society, and is on the board of directors of the Food Safeguards Council.

RONALD G. SYKES, ESQ has 30 years of experience in automotive, fuel, and environmental issues. He recently left General Motors after serving as the Washington Representative and Coordinator, Federal Issues, with responsibility for the Clean Air Act and product liability matters. Mr. Sykes joined General Motors in 1967 at the Technical Center in Warren, Michigan. He held a number of positions on GM’s engineering and environmental staffs working in areas of motor vehicle safety, noise control, and stationary source emissions. He joined the GM Government Relations Staff in Detroit in 1978 handling both product and non-product related issues and from 1982-1985 administered field programs, grassroots, etc. with GM’s Civic Involvement Program. Mr. Sykes earned both a B.B.A. and an MA in Public Administration from the University of Detroit. Mr. Sykes received his Juris Doctor (cum laude) from Detroit College of Law. He graduated from the Yale School of Management’s Executive Management Program in 1991. Mr. Sykes maintains his own consulting practice and collaborates with Durante Associates on various projects.

Doug Durante and Bill Holmberg with Colorado Governor Roy Romer.