Rustic Canyon

LOS ANGELES, CA - October 12, 2005 - US Renewables Group (USRG), a company organized to acquire, develop and operate renewable energy and clean fuel assets, today announced that it has acquired a controlling interest in the Bottle Rock Power Corporation, a California company whose principal asset is a 55 megawatt geothermal power station in the Geysers in Lake County. USRG plans to refurbish and restart the facility over the next 12 months. Before the end of 2006, USRG expects the station to produce approximately 200,000 megawatt hours per year of base load renewable power - enough energy on average to supply electricity to about 25,000 California homes.

The Bottle Rock facility was originally constructed, owned and operated by the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) to service its own power consumption requirements but was closed in 1991 due to a drop in production from the Geysers, the availability of ample power capacity in California and an inability at the time to economically justify the investment required to restore full production. The DWR subsequently sold the power station to Bottle Rock Power in 2001. "With the completion of the acquisition by USRG, the barriers to re-commissioning the facility have been cleared and Bottle Rock Power now has the critical resources it requires to successfully bring the power plant back on line," said Tom King, Executive Vice President of Finance at USRG and a new member of the board of Bottle Rock Power. The Bottle Rock Power acquisition builds on USRG's growing renewable energy assets that include two landfill methane facilities in California and negotiations for biomass power and ethanol assets. USRG recently closed $80 million in financing as part of its plan to raise a total of $250 million to fund the acquisition and operation of renewable energy assets.

"We look forward to working with all the interested parties to bring this important renewable power station back on line for the benefit of the State of California," said Lee Bailey, Chief Operating Officer at USRG and a Bottle Rock Power board member. "The restart and continued operation of the plant will bring many new job opportunities and additional commerce to Lake County while providing an impetus to local development in a number of exciting ways. USRG prides itself on being a good corporate citizen, and we look forward to forming a strong bond with the local community."

About US Renewables Group

US Renewables Group, LLC (USRG) is an investment company capitalizing on the fastest-growing segments of the $650B energy marketplace. USRG acquires, develops and operates renewable stationary power generation and clean fuel assets primarily in North America. USRG operates nationally from headquarters in Los Angeles and offices in New York. For more information, please visit the company Web site at www.usregroup.com.

Intrepid Learning Solutions landed $11.7 million in a fourth round of venture capital led by FTVentures of San Francisco, to expand marketing of its outsourced training services, and pursue acquisitions.

The deal brings total investment in the 7-year-old company to $19.65 million, and includes investment from previous backers Madrona Venture Group, Buerk Dale Victor LLC and Staenberg Venture Partners, all of Seattle, and Rustic Canyon Partners of Santa Monica, Calif. (Rustic Canyon Partners is an investor in The Deal LLC.)

This is expected to be the company's final private round before reaching positive cash flow later this year.

Intrepid CEO Chris Hedrick said the company began fundraising at the end of the first quarter and talked to about 8 firms, landing offers from most in a process investors termed very competitive.

The company did not disclose a valuation for the deal, but Hedrick said it was up significantly from Intrepid's $4.25 million third round of February 2004.

Hedrick said the company decided to raise additional capital to accelerate growth as Intrepid expands its corporate training curriculum and staffing in new industrial categories and geography. Intrepid offers complete outsourcing of training services to customers, including Microsoft Corp. of Redmond, Wash., Boeing Co. of Chicago, Wells Fargo & Co. of San Francisco, Autodesk Inc. of San Rafael, Calif., Adobe Systems Inc. of San Jose, Calif., and Starbucks Corp. of Seattle.

Hedrick said in addition to valuation, the company selected FTVentures as lead investor in the deal based on strategic advantage the firm could offer in financial services, one of its key vertical markets. Eric Byunn, a principal with FTVentures, said Intrepid is the firm's first investment in the education industry, but joins a number of investments in outsourcing companies.

FTVentures' fund consists of 38 limited partners in the financial services industry, and the firm invests strictly in companies of strategic interest to its investors. Hedrick said Intrepid expects the investment will help build customer relationships with FTVentures' investors, and Byunn said the firm can provide strategic help in expanding in the financial services industry in general.

'Corporate learning is a very big deal to our LPs and we have been researching the area for a very long time,' Byunn said. 'Financial institutions have very significant training and compliance requirements, and we were attracted to Intrepid based on the scale and size they have, and the fact that training is not a sideline business for them.'

Michael Song, a partner with Rustic Canyon, said the firm had invested in a number of training companies before leading Interpid's Series C round, and that the firm was particularly attracted to the company's ability to not only help companies cut training costs, but to demonstrate measurable improvements in efficiency through outsourced training.

'Companies view training as a black hole, and can't usually measure ROI,' Song said. 'Intrepid can demonstrate reduced cost immediately, but they also have sophisticated metrics to demonstrate ROI.'

The company used no outside financial adviser for the round, and had legal work on the deal from Mark Handfeldt of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati PC in Seattle. Tom Kellerman and Matt Bartus of Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP in Menlo Park, Calif., and San Francisco, respectively, represented the investors.