Did I understand this correctly: the DoD subsidized several million dollars of military jet fuel, to a shell company owned by Page and Schmidt, under a NASA research contract, which they used mostly for business and vacation travel?
(Seriously, did I read the story accurately -- it's confusing).
No. According to the article the DoD charged google what it cost them, so it was null to them. There might be some savings of local tax, but google is supposed to pay that separately (don't know if they did).
>The agency says it recently charged H211 on a cost-plus basis, and before that charged a standard budgetary price that was infrequently reset but over time reflected the government's costs.
So at least for some time the government was charging a standard accounting price that wasn't updated with rising fuel costs. This won't necessarily compensate over time. If you're smart when the government is below market you buy and when above do what they're doing now:
>Since the fuel cutoff, the Google executives' planes have been coping by flying back to Moffett with extra fuel purchased elsewhere, Mr. Ambrose said.
The reference to cost-plus does seem to imply they fixed this hole at some point.
(Seriously, did I read the story accurately -- it's confusing).
edit: I found the documents of the NASA contract:
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/business/foia/H211_LLC.html
Apparently these were disclosed by a FOIA filed by the New York Times:
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/23/a-new-fighter-jet-f...