- Georgia gubernatorial candidate Rick Jackson lent $20 million at 12% interest to America First Refining, which plans the first major new US refinery in half a century at Brownsville, Texas. He testified the loan was made in two $10 million tranches, three years ago and last year, paying 1% a month.
- Two valuations of the same project differ by a factor of 150. The White House website lists it as the single largest investment in US manufacturing and industry at $300 billion. Jackson, who said he owns 15% of the company, estimated it would be worth $2 billion on going public, putting his stake at $300 million.
- The disclosure was incidental. Jackson’s involvement emerged in testimony during his US Tax Court case against the IRS concerning deductions tied to low-budget film productions, when he was asked which of his firm’s loans had been particularly successful.
- The plant will process only Texas crude and is not slated to begin production until 2029. Reliance Industries holds a 20-year agreement to buy fuel from it.
What Happened?
Retail diesel has risen almost 70% since the US-Iran conflict began in late February, touching an all-time high above $6.50 a gallon late last month. Jackson’s Democratic opponent Keisha Lance Bottoms has run advertisements accusing him of profiting from high pump prices, saying at a September 30 briefing that he is sending diesel fuel to India while Georgia farmers and truck drivers struggle with costs. Her campaign confirmed the advertisements referred to his America First investment. Bloomberg notes the refinery will not produce anything until 2029. An Atlanta Journal Constitution poll puts the November 3 race effectively level. The Jackson campaign, America First and the White House did not comment. Vice President JD Vance recently announced Defense Production Act funding for a Delek refinery in East Texas, and America First has said it is also interested in such support. Morgan Stanley is leading an equity and debt fundraise for the project, and the company’s slide deck made no mention of Jackson’s loan.
Why It Matters?
The valuation gap is the fact worth carrying and it deserves scrutiny rather than acceptance. A $300 billion figure would make this project larger than the market capitalisation of most oil majors, and the world’s biggest refineries cost in the tens of billions. The insider’s own sworn estimate of $2 billion for the equity is far more consistent with the scale of a single refining complex. The two numbers may measure different things, but nothing explains a 150-fold difference, and anyone citing the government’s figure should know the owner’s is a fraction of a percent of it. The 12% interest rate is the market’s view of the risk. That is the pricing for a pre-production industrial project with a decade-long build, and it sits alongside an AI cloud provider placing a $5 billion loan at 11% and CoreWeave’s bonds yielding 14.8%. Capital for long-dated infrastructure is expensive regardless of sector, which is the condition running through most of this month’s financing stories. On the political dispute, the article’s own correction is the useful part: whatever one concludes about a candidate holding a 15% stake in a fossil fuel project, the plant produces nothing until 2029 and therefore cannot be contributing to today’s diesel prices. Readers can weigh the ownership question separately from the causation claim. The policy chain is worth stating plainly: federal funds under a 1950 emergency statute have gone to one refiner, a second has applied, and a candidate for state office owns 15% of the applicant.
What Next?
Whether America First secures Defense Production Act support is the item to watch, given it has said it wants it and a comparable grant has already gone to Delek. The Morgan Stanley fundraise will produce a market valuation that can be compared against both the $2 billion and $300 billion figures. The Georgia race is effectively tied ahead of November 3. For diesel markets, a 2029 start means this project is irrelevant to current prices whatever its eventual size.
Affected Tickers and Coins: DK, RELIANCE
Source: Bloomberg
