Outside the Box Power
Some ideas are too important to dismiss simply because they challenge conventional thinking. Alan Gordon believes promising technologies deserve a fair examination—and powerful interests should never determine which ideas the public gets to explore.
The Tesla Files and the Rhode Island Statehouse
Rhode Islanders deserve to know whether historical records concerning Nikola Tesla, John G. Trump, architect Stanford White, and the design of the Rhode Island State House contain information of scientific or public importance that has never been fully examined or disclosed.
Nikola Tesla dreamed of making abundant electrical energy available without conventional wires or fuel. His experiments explored resonance, high-frequency electricity, transmission through the earth and atmosphere, and enormous structures intended to participate in that system.
That is where Rhode Island enters the story.
Stanford White—who, with Charles Follen McKim, designed the Rhode Island State House—was also the architect Tesla chose for his experimental Wardenclyffe tower on Long Island. The two projects were being developed during the same extraordinary period of American architecture and electrical experimentation.
And the State House is no ordinary building. Its enormous marble dome, metal structural elements, prominent elevated location and unusual geometry raise a provocative question:
Could some aspect of the Rhode Island State House have been designed to harvest and transmit electrical energy—and could that capability still exist today?
Alan Gordon isn’t proposing that Rhode Islanders simply believe that. He wants to find out.
When Tesla died in 1943, the federal government took custody of his papers. Electrical engineer and MIT professor John G. Trump—uncle of President Donald Trump—was asked to examine Tesla’s materials and determine whether they contained information of military or scientific significance.
That creates a remarkable chain of historical connections:
Tesla → Stanford White → Wardenclyffe → Rhode Island State House → Tesla’s papers → John G. Trump → President Donald J. Trump.
Gordon is calling on President Trump and the federal government to release any remaining Tesla-related records that could shed light on these questions and allow qualified engineers, historians and scientists to examine them.
If the State House is simply a magnificent Beaux-Arts building, the evidence should show that.
But if its architecture incorporates an overlooked electrical principle—particularly one capable of harvesting, transmitting or concentrating usable energy—Rhode Island deserves to know that too. Our electric bills are too darned high.
And if there is something there, Gordon’s proposal is delightfully straightforward:
Turn it on. Lower our bills. Free the energy.
The Request to President Trump
Gordon has formally called on President Donald Trump to release and declassify any remaining federal records concerning Nikola Tesla that could shed light on the Rhode Island State House question. The request began with a detailed letter from Campaign Manager Rev. Anne Armstrong laying out the historical and technical questions. Gordon endorsed the request and transmitted it to President Trump with his own cover letter.
The Biofuel Question: Who Owns the Future of Energy?
Botryococcus braunii is a microscopic green alga remarkable for its ability to produce large quantities of hydrocarbons—energy-rich compounds that can potentially be harvested and converted into useful fuels. Unlike petroleum deposits that took millions of years to form, algae can be cultivated again and again using sunlight, water and carbon dioxide.
Researchers have studied that possibility for decades. Patents have been issued. Companies have invested in the technology. Yet despite the enormous potential of renewable, biologically produced hydrocarbons, the technology has never become a significant part of America’s energy supply.
So what happened?
That question became particularly intriguing when Gordon began tracing the ownership of intellectual property involving Botryococcus braunii. Technologies and patent rights for potentially revolutionary biotech changed hands, eventually leading to an unexpected destination: IO-MEGA HOLDING Corp.
Alan Gordon believes the history deserves examination—not because the disappearance of a promising technology proves wrongdoing, but because technologies capable of disrupting enormous established industries deserve transparency about what happened to them.
Was the technology technically unsuccessful? Was it simply too expensive to commercialize? Did another technology make it obsolete? Who acquired the intellectual property, and for what purpose? Is the underlying technology still viable today?
Or did powerful economic interests have a reason to make sure an inexpensive renewable competitor to conventional petroleum never reached its potential?
Those are questions that can be answered by evidence.
As Attorney General, Gordon would follow evidence of fraud, anticompetitive conduct, public corruption or other unlawful interference wherever Rhode Island’s interests and the lawful authority of the office permit. A promising technology should not receive special treatment merely because it sounds revolutionary—but neither should powerful interests be permitted to bury it because it threatens an existing business model.
If the technology doesn’t work, establish that.
If it works but isn’t economically practical, establish that.
But if we really can grow the oil, Rhode Islanders deserve to know what happened to the idea—and who owns it now.