Google guys got jet fuel for $3.11/gallon from NASA deal

mikea

mikea

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Since 2007, Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin have been gassing up their private jets at deep discounts thanks to the federal government. But according to The Wall Street Journal, the jet-fuel breaks are now over. Thanks to an agreement between NASA and an LLC, called H211 — owned by Page, Brin, and Google Chairman Eric Schmidt — the executives were allowed to fuel up at an airfield located within the Ames Research Center. Ames is located about three miles away from Google's headquarters in Mountain View, California.

The jet fuel agreement expired on August 31st, and a Pentagon spokewoman tells the Journal that NASA opted not to renew it. NASA's decision to end the jet fuel discounts comes amid an audit by the agency's own inspector general and questions from the pentagon over whether or not H211 ever broke the agreement by purchasing fuel for non-government flights. H211, a company started specifically to manage the private planes of Google execs, purchased fuel at an average price of $3.19 per gallon, the Journal report says.

http://www.theverge.com/2013/9/12/4725206/nasa-larry-page-sergey-brin-jet-fuel
Click to expand...

The cheap fuel for the Google executives came courtesy of a special agreement with NASA, whose Ames Research Center is based at Moffett Federal Airfield, a former U.S. Navy base that is the most convenient airport to Google's Mountain View, Calif., headquarters, about three miles away.
...
In total, H211 has bought 2.3 million gallons of jet fuel since early 2009, according to Pentagon records viewed by The Wall Street Journal, paying an average $3.19 per gallon.

"I don't see how in the hell anybody can buy it that cheap," said Fred Fitts, president of the Corporate Aircraft Association, a nonprofit that negotiates discounted jet-fuel prices for 1,600 corporate flight departments at airports around the U.S.

Mr. Fitts provided figures showing that CAA members paid an average of $4.35 a gallon across the U.S. over that period.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB100...4.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsForth
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:stirpot:
 
Probably where giving huge tax breaks also ,so google would build a campus there. I'm sure the govt can explain the agreement they made and the benefit to the tax payers. We can put the people from the Kennedy space center out of work to save money,then we can subsidize our friends.
 
Oh, it would be SO easy to make snarky comments about this and certain governement agencies, but I'll leave that to others. :stirpot:
 
I'm curious if that is the government's cost based on some long term contract with no taxes on the fuel.
 
"Sure, we will allow that NSA fiber optic connection to our edge router, what do we get for it?"

Note: Fuel deal over, lawsuit against NSA.

LOL. Coincidence? ;) ;) ;). :stirpot:
 
denverpilot said:
"Sure, we will allow that NSA fiber optic connection to our edge router, what do we get for it?"

Note: Fuel deal over, lawsuit against NSA.

LOL. Coincidence? ;) ;) ;). :stirpot:
Click to expand...
Umm, NSA and NASA are two different agencies. NASA doesn't eavesdrop. It's not related to aerospace and there is little science to be done there. NSA probably does have their own deal with Google, but it's unrelated and I don't know anything about that other than speculation.

Yes, it's a coincidence.

Google is our neighbor and has trouble expanding its operations into Mountain View. There is a lot of empty space here. They want to use it. NASA resists it, largely. We have a big bird perch next to the airfield that Google offered to restore, if only the H211 aircraft could be stored in there. NASA said no (well, more precisely, NASA said absolutely nothing and let the offer expire).

There have certainly been some scientific flights benefitting Ames space and earth science projects with the Google jets, but it is not at all clear to this outsider whether that accounts for millions of gallons of Jet A. However, keep in mind the scale here. A few million gallons of Jet A over 5 years is not a lot for two large airliners, two bizjets and a subsonic fighter. They clearly are getting most of their fuel elsewhere.
 
I have no problem with a corporate entity making a deal to use the facility and even getting the same fuel rate the government negotiated on a bulk contract* in return for hanger rent and allowing use of the jets...but is the same deal open to all comers?????

* as above: unless it means that the corp isn't paying the federal, state and local taxes on the fuel
 
Google being the only private entity that I trust as little as I do the federal government, I can't think of anything to say that wouldn't send this thread into SZ. So I shall say nothing more than that.

-Rich
 
I think Google was smart to take the deal.

Don't cry over spilt milk.

Don't we all buy our gas where we get the best discount or price?

Terry
 
My question is, was the price subsidized or did they just pay the same as the government? I would Google it, but I'm sure I'd get redirected and my IP address put on a watch list. :D
 
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