Ann: Biorefinery Business Exit, page-5

To be fair it was from the time of activist shareholders hammering fossil fuel companies at board level, many companies started these green energy pipe dreams in the hope of staying under the radar enough that the professional activists would target someone else.

I don't think even AC saw it as more than that. Throwing a bit of money at a rudimentary level feasibility study was a small price to pay. Fortunately the pendulum of opinion has started to swing back as the green energy facade starts to creak, so it's a good time to put this distraction aside.