Ibrahim Ajami, the CEO of ATIC, told me that government and business leaders had identified semiconductors as a core business to compete, part of a long-range 2030 plan to transition the economy from oil and gas business to high technology and to build its own chip foundries.
During phase two of their project, currently slated for mid- 2012, Range plans to expand production at the Soperton plant and transition from a methanol to a mixed alcohol catalyst.
Medicare reform was a dominant issue in the 2012 campaign, as Democrats sought, unsuccessfully, to tar Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan for their promising and thoughtful plan to transition future retirees into a competitive bidding system in which seniors could choose among a range of public and private insurance plans.