I found this little gem in the February 26th Debt Rattle over at The Automatic Earth. Today its ethanol plants being blocked but don't imagine wind, solar, and biomass are immune. The nature of financing is changing ... for everyone.

While public-sector borrowers continue to get hammered by the blackout in the auction-rate securities market, U.S. corporates are beginning to feel the pain as well. Late last week, two companies reported in Securities & Exchange Commission filings that they had money stuck in illiquid securities, which will force them either to take write-downs or scrap plans for expansion.

Aventine Renewable Energy Holdings, a $1.6 billion in sales ethanol maker, reported that it may have to delay the construction of two new plants due to excess cash trapped in failed auction-rate securities. ?Should we not be able to liquidate a substantial portion of the remaining portfolio of these ARS securities on a timely basis and on acceptable terms, we will have to either attempt to raise additional funds or slow down the construction of our new facilities, or both,? said CFO Ajay Sabherwal on a conference call.

As of Dec. 31, 2007, Aventine said that it had $211.5 million in taxable auction-rate securities. Since the beginning of this year, the company had successfully liquidated $84.3 million of those securities, taking a pretax loss of $1.5 million in the process. The company indicated the remaining $127.2 million was stuck in illiquid auction-rate securities, which are backed by student loans and continue to be rated triple-A.