Wal-Mart gives $369,000 for ethanol research in Arkansas
Last month, the Wal-Mart Foundation gave $369,000 to the Arkansas Biosciences Institute for cellulosic ethanol research, specifically biomass-to-ethanol work. For comparison, Wal-Mart earned $351,139,000,000 last year. While most of the research done at ABI focuses on tobacco-related issues (the institute was formed thanks to the Tobacco Settlement Proceeds Act of 2000), the Wal-Mart money will be used to try and get biofuel out of "the state's agriculture and forestry resources," according to Domestic Fuel, which means making ethanol from things like "plant stalks and leaves, agricultural residues and forestry residues."
Wal-Mart has been supporting ethanol for many years and also has a toe in LNG trucks and electric drive vehicles.
[Source: Domestic Fuel]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Ignatius 12:13PM (10/01/2008)
Why ethanol...?
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Ozzie 12:59PM (10/01/2008)
Hey Sebastian, why don't you post your income and how much you gave to the Arkansas Biosciences Institute so we could all judge if it was sufficient.
I'm not a Wal-Mart fan but kudos to them for donating, regardless of how much it is in relation to their earnings.
Obviously you've judged that $369,000 is not charitable enough. To me any donation is worthy of praise regardless of profit.
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barry 3:03PM (10/01/2008)
Walmart earned about 29 billion not 351 billion as Sebastian states. The 351 billion figure is revenue not earnings. On the 29 billion in earnings, they paid somewhere around 10 billion in federal taxes and maybe another 5 billion in depreciation. Net income is around 13 billion. Some of this was paid back to shareholders as dividends...shareholders are us. Meanwhile they allowed each of us to buy goods at prices that we could not have dreamed of when our parents were growing up. Today's consumer pays far less for food, shelter and energy than our parents despite the current price increases. I'm glad they are helping out.
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