Jay Inslee: “The story of John Plaza is, to me, just a perfect example of what America is about and why this is such a great economy…”

“The story of John Plaza is, to me, just a perfect example of what America is about and why this is such a great economy and a great Nation. John was an airline pilot several years ago and he said he got a little tired of flying across the country and reading a book in the cockpit, to the extent that is allowed. He decided to look around for a new opportunity to sort of do something creative. He started to think about the ability to use biofuels to run our transportation system. John was one of the first people to make biodiesel. He started to essentially brew up biodiesel almost in his garage just a few years ago. Then he decided to make a commercial operation. So he went out and raised some money from a fellow named Matthew Tobias, who did well at Microsoft. They went out, and this is one of the part of the stories I like, they bought two big vats that were used at the Rainier Brewing Company to brew beer. They took those vats and they started to brew biodiesel in a little warehouse on the shores of the Duwamish River in Seattle. That went so well that they went out to the capital markets and raised tens of millions of dollars to build a real first-class biodiesel facility.”