captioning funded by cbs and ford. we go further, so you can. captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org captioning funded by cbs and ford. we go further, so you can. >> we have made history tonight! >> at 29, alexandria ocasio- cortez is the youngest woman ever elected to congress. but that's not the only headline she's responsible for. >> hello! >> ocasio-cortez is a democratic socialist. she's been described as both an inspiring and idealistic insurgent, and as a naiïve and ill-informed newcomer. ( cheers and applause ) these are politically dangerous tactics that you're using. you've heard that. >> yeah, yeah. >> do you believe it? >> it's absolutely risky. ( ticking ) >> malta sits as a sun-dappled speck in the mediterranean, a

short ferry ride to sicily and not much farther to libya. over the last three millennia, malta has been conquered or colonized by just about every world power. ( bells ringing ) most of the 500,000 people here are catholic, a tradition that started early. the apostle paul is said to have been shipwrecked here in 60 a.d. but as you'll see, today, the proud maltese are dealing with accusations that are far from holy. ( ticking ) >> this unlikely inventor calls himself "messianic"-- as in the messiah-- and likes to say, matter-of-factly, that he is "saving the world." and that's what you think? >> yes. >> you think, "i'm saving the world." >> i don't think. i don't think, i know that. >> he's a man on a mission, who decided one day that he was going to stop global warming. >> i thought he was another thomas edison. >> another thomas edison? >> another thomas edison. a genius.

a very eccentric genius, but a genius who had come up with this totally revolutionary idea. ( ticking ) >> i'm steve kroft. >> i'm lesley stahl. >> i'm scott pelley. >> i'm anderson cooper. >> i'm jon wertheim. >> i'm bill whitaker. those stories, tonight, on this special edition of "60 minutes." ( ticking ) don't give it up ♪ ♪ i want it all ♪ 'cause there's nothing like this feeling, baby ♪ now that i've found you ♪ ♪ now that i've found you ♪ ...used almost everywhereema, eon almost everybody. like the hands of a hairstylist. or the calf of a cutie. prescription eucrisa... ...works at and below the surface of the skin. it blocks overactive pde4 enzymes... ...which is believed to reduce inflammation. and it's steroid free. do not use if you are allergic to eucrisa or its ingredients.

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get into an itty-bitty taxi. and finally, order one. or, get to your neighborhood mcdonald's now. because for a limited time, worldwide favorites are here. keep being you. and ask your doctor about biktarvy. biktarvy is a complete one-pill, once-a-day treatment used for hiv in certain adults. it's not a cure, but with one small pill, biktarvy fights hiv with three different medicines to hu tto undectable. but with one small pill, it can't be measured in lab tests. serious side effects can occur, including kidney problems and kidney failure. rare, life-threatening side effects include a build-up of lactic acid and liver problems. do not take biktarvy if you take dofetilide or rifampin. tell your doctor about all the medicines

and supplements you take, if you are pregnant or breastfeeding, or if you have kidney or liver problems, including hepatitis. if you have hepatitis b, do not stop taking biktarvy without talking to your doctor. common side effects were diarrhea, nausea, and headache. if you're hiv-positive, keep loving who you are, inside and out. ask your doctor if biktarvy is right for you. >> cooper: a year and a half ago, 29-year-old alexandria ocasio-cortez was serving food and drinks at a restaurant in downtown manhattan. but then, she defeated one of

the most powerful politicians in the house in the democratic primary, and won herself a seat in congress. now, she's serving up questions for cabinet secretaries and c.e.o.s during congressional hearings, and promoting policies that have been embraced by democratic presidential candidates but also criticized within her own party. congresswoman ocasio-cortez is, like senator bernie sanders, a democratic socialist. she supports universal healthcare, tuition-free public college, and massive government investment to combat climate change. she's been described as an inspiring insurgent and as an ill-informed newcomer, as the future of the democratic party and as a potential obstacle to its success. as we first reported in january, few rookie members of congress have put sldas national agenda-- and stirred up so much controversy before they were sworn in. there are people that say that you don't understand how the game is played. >> alexandria ocasio-cortez: mh-huh. >> cooper: do you?

>> ocasio-cortez: i think it's really great for people to keep thinking that. >> cooper: you want folks to underestimate you? >> ocasio-cortez: absolutely. that's how i won my primary. >> cooper: winning that primary shocked the democratic establishment, and in november, alexandria ocasio-cortez became the youngest woman ever elected to congress. >> ocasio-cortez: we have made history tonight! >> cooper: just a few days later, as soon as she got to washington... >> protestors: green new deal, green new deal, green new deal! >> cooper: ...she paid a visit to climate change activists who were occupying her party leader nancy pelosi's office. she was the only newly-elected member of congress who decided to drop by during the sit-in, and she called on pelosi to create a select committee on climate change without any members of congress who accept money from the fossil fuel industry. ( cheers and applause ) >> cooper: nancy pelosi is incredibly powerful. >> ocasio-cortez: she absolutely is. and-- >> cooper: and you're occupying her office. >> ocasio-cortez: oh my

goodness, i could have thrown up that morning. ( laughs ) i was so nervous. but-- i had also sat down with-- with leader pelosi beforehand, and she told me her story. she came from activism. and i knew that she would absolutely understand how advocacy can change the needle on really important issues. >> cooper: ocasio-cortez and her allies managed to get more than 40 members of congress to support the climate committee. >> nancy pelosi: good morning. >> cooper: house speaker nancy pelosi agreed to create it, but it's not nearly what ocasio- cortez had in mind. pelosi granted the committee limited powers, and did not ban members who take money from the fossil fuel industry. >> ocasio-cortez. >> cooper: for ocasio-cortez, it was an eiol politics. and another one came when she defied pelosi and voted against the speaker's new house rules, but was not joined by many other progressive democrats. ocasio-cortez told us she's determined to keep fighting for what's being called a "green new deal"-- a highly ambitious, some

would say "unrealistic" proposal that would convert the entire u.s. economy to renewable sources of energy in just 12 years, while guaranteeing every american a job at a fair wage. you're talking about zero carbon emissions-- no use of fossil fuels within 12 years. >> ocasio-cortez: that is the goal. it's ambitious, and... >> cooper: how is that possible? are you talking about everybody having to drive an electric car? >> ocasio-cortez: it's going to require a lot of rapid change that we don't even conceive as possible right now. what is the problem with trying to push our technological capacities to the furthest extent possible? >> cooper: this would require, though, raising taxes. >> ocasio-cortez: there's an element where-- yeah. they're-- people are going to have to start paying their fair share in taxes. >> cooper: do you have a specific on the tax rate? >> ocasio-cortez: you know, it-- you look at our tax rates back in the '60s, and when you have a progressive tax rate system, your tax rate, you know, let's

say, from zero to $75,000 may be 10% or 15%, et cetera. but once you get to, like, the tippy-tops-- on your ten-millionth dollar-- sometimes you see tax rates as high as 60% or 70%. that doesn't mean all $10 million are taxed at an extremely high rate, but it means that as you climb up this ladder, you should be contributing more. >> cooper: what you are talking about, just big picture, is a radical agenda, compared to the way politics is done right now. >> ocasio-cortez: well, i think that it only has ever been radicals that have changed this country. abraham lincoln made the radical decision to sign the emancipation proclamation. franklin delano roosevelt made the radical decision to embark on establishing programs like social security. >> cooper: do you call yourself a radical? >> ocasio-cortez: yeah. you know, if that's what radical means, call me a radical. hello! hi, all. >> cooper: she doesn't seem to be viewed as a radical by her

constituents in "new york 14," the racially diverse, liberal, and reliably democratic congressional district that includes parts of queens and the bronx. ocasio-cortez was born in the bronx. her parents had met in puerto rico. her father owned a small architectural business. her mother cleaned houses to help make ends meet. by the time she was ready for pre-school, her parents had made a down payment on a small house in the westchester suburbs. it was 30 miles and a world away from her extended family still living in the bronx. what was it that-- that brought your parents here? >> ocasio-cortez: schools. yeah, my mom wanted to make sure that i had a solid chance and a solid education. >> cooper: did you feel like you were living in two different worlds? because you were spending a lot of time in the bronx with your family and also here. >> ocasio-cortez: yeah. yeah. and just growing up that way, and with my cousins, who were all my age too, feeling like we all had kind of different opportunities, depending on where we were physically located. >> cooper: she did well in

school, and with the help of scholarships, loans, and financial aid, attended boston university. but in her sophomore year, her father died of cancer. >> ocasio-cortez: we were really working on the classic american dream. and overnight, it was all taken away. my mom was back to cleaning homes and driving school buses to keep a roof over our heads. >> cooper: she moved back to the bronx after graduating college, and spent the next few years working as a community organizer and advocate for children's literacy. in may of 2017, the one-bedroom apartment she shares with her boyfriend became her makeshift campaign headquarters, as she launched a seemingly improbable run for congress. she was working as a waitress and bartender at the time. like many members of her generation, she says, she had student loans to pay, and no health insurance. >> ocasio-cortez: i really understood the frustration that

working people had across the political spectrum. when anybody is saying, "the economy is going great. we are at record levels." there's a frustration that says, "well, the economy's good for who?" >> cooper: i mean, unemployment is at record lows. >> ocasio-cortez: i don't think that that tells the whole story. when you can't provide for your kids working a full-time job, working two full-time jobs, when you can't have healthcare, that is not-- that is not dignified. >> cooper: she built a grass- roots coalition that took on the democratic machine by going door to door... >> ocasio-cortez: hi, sadia. i'm alexandria. >> cooper: ...arguing that she could represent the district better than a ten-term incumbent who spent most of his time in washington. >> ocasio-cortez: have a good day. >> stephen colbert: please welcome alexandria ocasio- cortez! >> cooper: her victory made national news, and she soon had a higher media profile than many veteran lawmakers. some saw in her primary victory a craving for change within the democratic party. house democratic leader nancy

pelosi drew a more limited conclusion: >> pelosi: they made a choice in one district, so let's not get yourself carried away. >> cooper: but president trump rarely missed a chance to suggest that all democrats were socialists who'd lead the country to ruin. >> donald trump: venezuela. venezuela. how does that sound? you like venezuela? >> cooper: when people hear the word "socialism," they think soviet union, cuba, venezuela. is that what you have in mind? >> ocasio-cortez: of course not! what we have in mind-- and what of my-- and my policies most closely resemble what we see in the u.k., in norway, in finland, in sweden. >> cooper: how are you going to pay for all of this? >> ocasio-cortez: no one asks how we're going to pay for this space force. no one asked how we paid for a $2 trillion tax cut. we only ask how we pay for it on issues of housing, healthcare and education. how do we pay for it? with the same exact mechanisms that we pay for military increases for this space force. for all of these ambitious

policies. >> cooper: there are democrats, obviously, who are worried about your affect on the party. democratic senator chris coons, said about left-leaning democrats, "if the next two years is just a race to offer increasingly unrealistic proposals, it'll be difficult for us to make a credible case we should be allowed to govern again." >> ocasio-cortez: what makes it unrealistic? >> cooper: how to pay for it. >> ocasio-cortez: we pay more per capita in healthcare and education, for lower outcomes, than many other nations. and so for me, what's unrealistic is-- is what we're living in right now. >> cooper: since the election, some conservative media outlets have focused on ocasio-cortez with an intensity unusual for a rookie member of congress. >> sean hannity: her views, her policy positions, are actually downright scary. >> cooper: she's been accused of being dishonest about the true cost of her proposals, and the tax burden they would impose on the middle class. she's also been criticized for making factual mistakes. one of the criticisms of you is that your math is fuzzy.

the "washington post" recently awarded you four pinocchios-- >> ocasio-cortez: oh my goodness. >> cooper: --for misstating some statistics about pentagon spending? >> ocasio-cortez: if people want to really blow up one figure here or one word there, i would argue that they're missing the forest for the trees. i think that there's a lot of people more concerned about being precisely, factually, and semantically correct, than about being morally right. >> cooper: but being factually correct is important-- >> ocasio-cortez: it's absolutely important. and whenever i make a mistake, i say, "okay, this was clumsy." and then i restate what my point was. but it's-- it's not the same thing as the president lying about immigrants. it's not the same thing, at all. >> trump: we started the wall anyway, and we're going to get that done. we're going to get that done. ( cheers and applause ) >> cooper: you don't talk about president trump very much. >> ocasio-cortez: no. >> cooper: why?

>> ocasio-cortez: no. because i think he's a symptom of a problem. >> cooper: what do you mean? >> ocasio-cortez: the president certainly didn't invent racism. but he's certainly given a voice to it, and expanded it, and created a platform for those things. >> cooper: do you believe president trump is a racist? >> ocasio-cortez: yeah. yeah, no question. >> cooper: how can you say that? >> ocasio-cortez: when you look at the words that he uses, which are historic dog whistles of white supremacy. when you look at how he reacted to the charlottesville incident, where neo-nazis murdered a woman, versus how he manufactures crises like immigrants seeking legal refuge on our borders, it's-- it's night and day. >> cooper: in response, the white house deputy press secretary told us, "congresswoman ocasio-cortez's sheer ignorance on the matter can't cover the fact that president trump supported and passed historic criminal justice reform," and "has repeatedly condemned racism and bigotry in all forms."

one of the few things ocasio- cortez has in common with the president is an active and often combative presence on social media. when a conservative writer tweeted this photo of her, saying "that jacket and coat don't look like a girl who struggles," she called him out for what she said was "misogyny." >> ocasio-cortez: would you be taking a creep shot of steny hoyer's behind and sharing it around? why is there more comfort in doing that to me than there is in doing it to any other member of congress?nati influence of corporate money in politics is another one of ocasio-cortez's signature issues. most of her campaign funds came from small donations of $200 or less. she did accept some money from labor unions, but she refuses to take any contributions from corporate political action committees. she's angered some of her colleagues in the house by

encouraging primary challenges of democrats who accept corporate money or oppose progressive policies. these are politically dangerous tactics that you're using. you've heard that. >> ocasio-cortez: yeah, yeah. >> cooper: do you believe it? >> ocasio-cortez: it's absolutely risky. it requires risk to try something new, but... but also, we-- we know so much of-- of what we've tried in the past hasn't worked, either. >> cooper: since our story first aired, congresswoman ocasio- cortez was given seats on two influential committees-- financial services, and oversight. republicans have called her proposal for a green new deal "unrealistic" and "potentially ruinous to the economy." but the leading democratic presidential candidates have said they support the idea, though they differ on some of the detail [ giggling ] ohhhh man.

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any questions? >> wertheim: malta, you might say, is punching above its weight. the smallest nation in the european union is home to one of its fastest growing economies. name a voguish growth-sector: internet gambling, cryptocurrency, block-chain, artificial intelligence-- and malta is trying to establish itself as a hub. a mere blip in the mediterranean, malta prides itself on this surge and its plucky personality. but as we first reported in december, there's a fine line between the cutting edge and the margins, the sun and the shadows. along with old charms and new rruption and dubiousis earning a dealings... and then there's the matter of the assassination of a journalist-- daphne caruana galizia-- whose revelations cut a little too close to the heart of power.

malta sits as a sun-dappled speck in the mediterranean, three small islands a short ferry ride from sicily and not much farther to libya. the southern gateway to europe. it can be hard to get your bearings here. over the last three millennia, malta has been conquered or colonized by just about every world power, and each has left its mark. ( bells ringing ) most of the 500,000 people here are catholic, a tradition that started early. the apostle paul is said to have shipwrecked here in 60 a.d. >> mark anthony falzon: i find this to be a good metaphor of maltese culture. >> wertheim: mark anthony falzon is an anthropology professor and local newspaper columnist. >> falzon: the story is that saint paul converted the maltese to christianity. so that would mean that malta was one of the first places to be converted to christianity, even before rome. so we would be the original and the best christians.

>> wertheim: a small band of crusaders, later known as the knights of malta, fended off the mighty ottomans in the 16th century. under british rule, the maltese survived more than 3,000 german and italian bombing raids in world war ii. malta gained its independence in 1964 and, since then, this country with little heavy industry and not much arable land has had to figure out a way to get by on its own. remnants of its fabled past have made it irresistible to hollywood producers. parts of "gladiator" were filmed here. >> are you not entertained? >> wertheim: and, "game of thrones." europeans flock here for a budget tan; oligarchs, to dock their super-yachts. malta's already an established hub of online gambling... >> no more bets!

>> wertheim: ...but since taking over in 2013, the current government has sought to refashion the country as a mecca for emerging and complex technologies, like crypto- currency and block-chain. the 45-year-old prime minister, joseph muscat, is the high priest of this new gospel. >> joseph muscat: welcome to malta. welcome to the block-chain island. thank you. >> wertheim: these industries may be thriving in this sunny place, yet they're known to attract more than their fair share of shadowy people. but that's nothing new. for centuries, malta played host to pirates and smugglers, operating at what mark anthony falzon calls the "center of the fringes." it strikes me there's a certain ingenuity, a certain scrappiness here. >> falzon: yes, and scrappiness also means flexibility. >> wertheim: does that also pertain to a willingness to bend rules? flexibility in that sense? >> falzon: no doubt. yes. the person who never bends the rules, they are thought of as a

bit of a good boy. >> wertheim: which is not a term of endearment. >> falzon: no, a good boy is not a very good thing to be. it's naiïve. >> muscat: while we have increased... >> wertheim: perhaps in that same entrepreneurial spirit, the government has launched a program-- some call it a scheme-- to sell passports to the world's super-rich. have a spare million? you too could buy maltese citizenship, and as this promotional video shows, the european union passport that comes with it. >> as citizens of malta, successful applicants can enjoy visa-free access to approximately 170 countries. >> wertheim: who's buying these passports? >> manuel delia: russian tycoons, chinese tycoons, saudi tycoons, nigerian tycoons. >> wertheim: for manuel delia, an online journalist and longtime critic of the current government, the program, estimated to have brought in almost a billion dollars, is essentially a trojan horse, allowing those with dubious aims to breach europe's borders. why would they want a maltese passport?

>> delia: because they want to go in the rest of the world, hiding where they're really from. maltese passports give them not only free movement for themselves through european airports, but it gives their money, their capital, free movement throughout europe. >> wertheim: and free movement to the united states. american airport, you've got that maltese passport validated by the e.u., you go right through passport control? >> delia: visa-free, absolutely. so, that's a big reason to have it. >> wertheim: applicants to the golden passport program, as it's come to be known, are supposed to show that they've established residence in malta for at least a year. but when we checked the listed address for a russian tycoon, it led us here... >> delia: down there in the basement. >> wertheim: ...to a modest suburb and rundown basement apartment that had been divided in two. let's just call this what it is. this-- this is a fraud. erpeia: ita frau by the state. it's not just sanctioned by the state. >> wertheim: there are other

countries in europe where money can get you a passport, but in tiny malta, it has helped contribute to the economic boom. and yet, if malta is suddenly flush with cash, in other ways, it's bankrupt. at least according to journalist daphne caruana galizia, who spent years chronicling organized crime, as well as high-level corruption, for malta's major newspapers, and then on her blog, "running commentary." when she launched the site in 2008, her son matthew says it quickly turned into a must-read. how would you describe her blog, "running commentary," to someone that-- that hadn't read it before? >> matthew caruna galizia: it was completely revolutionary. >> wertheim: she became known simply as "daphne," and just as quickly, became a reviled figure in some corners of malta. vilified by government officials, subjected to libel suits, and to death threats. do you ever think to say, "mom, you've got to stop the blog, you've got to stop poking and provoking. this is getting dangerous." >> galizia: of course she felt fear, and you could see it. she knew that the powerful people that she was writing

about were closing in on her. they were using every possible means to shut her down. she knew that, and that frightened her deeply. >> wertheim: then on the afternoon of october 16, 2017, matthew was sitting across from his mother at the dining room table in the family home as she finished a blog post. "there are crooks everywhere you look now," she wrote. "the situation is desperate." just before 3:00 p.m., she left the house to go to the bank. >> galizia: and then what seemed like 30 seconds later, i hear the explosion. and just, it was just so loud. >> wertheim: daphne's car made it less than a mile down the road through the valley when a powerful bomb placed under her seat was detonated, sending thick black smoke into the air. matthew ran toward the wreckage. so you think this is where-- >> galizia: i think this is where the-- this is where the bomb went off. it's been marked by the forensic team. and this is where a lot of the

flesh and metal and plastic was. >> wertheim: the car ended up in a field 100 yards away, consumed by a fireball. matthew's first instinct was to try and get his mother out. >> galizia: i remember walking up to the driver's side and just seeing fire. i didn't see anything else inside the car. >> wertheim: there are a lot of ways to kill someone. what do you think the significance of a car bomb this powerful was? >> galizia: obviously it was a way of killing my mother. a way of sending a message to us, to our family. and a way of sending a message to anyone else who was thinking of doing anything about the really grand corruption in this country. >> wertheim: this was a symbolic gesture? >> galizia: it was. >> wertheim: for the mourners who attended daphne's funeral, her assassination was symbolic of just how corroded malta had become, under a government that she claimed doesn't just tolerate corruption, but encourages it. the list of scandals she exposed

and relentlessly pursued is too numerous to catalogue here, and includes allegations of cronyism, bribery, and money laundering. but there's one revelation that stands out, involving a murky maltese bank recently shuttered by european authorities. it allegedly held accounts for some of malta's most well- connected, including the prime minister's chief of staff, keith schembri. as daphne chronicled, schembri is alleged to have taken kickbacks for brokering malta's billion-dollar national energy deal, and for taking payoffs to help russian millionaires snag those coveted maltese passports. >> delia: keith schembri is still in business. he's the chief of staff of the prime minister. he's the most powerful man in this government. >> wertheim: he went to work today? >> delia: he went to work today. >> wertheim: with-- with this cloud hovering over him? >> delia: well, this is what impunity is about. this is why i'm angry. >> wertheim: schembri denies any wrongdoing, but leaked findings into the passport kickback allegations by malta's own

financial watchdog determined that there was "reasonable suspicion of money laundering and/or the existence of proceeds of crime." maltese justice officials are looking into both sets of allegations. what's more, there have been multiple inquiries by european authorities, all raising serious questions about corruption in malta. we put all this to glenn bedingfield, a local member of parliament and former advisor to the prime minister. what's your level of concern? >> glenn bedingfield: i don't have any concerns. >> wertheim: you have no concerns about corruption? >> bedingfield: no, because i think that there's a smear campaign, trying to hit the government. >> wertheim: all of this is a politically-charged smear campaign-- >> bedingfield: it is a politically charged smear campaign, yes. >> wertheim: the e.u., the european authorities. >> bedingfield: the e.u. >>theim: can quote from an e.u. report right now. this is ana maria gomes, an m.e.p. >> bedingfield: whoa, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho. ana maria gomes. >> ana maria gomes: we are taking up malta in the european parliament. >> wertheim: when we met her, ana maria gomes was a

portuguese member of the european parliament, leading an e.u. inquiry into the rule of law in malta. she was part of a growing chorus of officials who see the country as a problem child on the continent. >> gomes: the system is basically flawed, because the prime minister ultimately controls the attorney general, who also controls the police. nobody's being tried. and of course, the sense of impunity is being fueled by this fact. and it affects us all. >> wertheim: something's rotten in the state of malta, i hear you say. >> gomes: yes. and such a beautiful island, and such a great people, such a proud history. but, i must say that at the moment, indeed, the political atmosphere is-- is-- is rotten. >> wertheim: we repeatedly asked to speak with prime minister muscat, but were told he didn't have time. instead, the government put forward the finance minister, edward scicluna. can you not see how people looking at malta from the outside really wonder about integrity and corruption here? >> edward scicluna: it's not that picture you're-- you're depicting.

it looks bad, but it's not. >> wertheim: i want to be clear: this is a depiction based on multiple different authorities inside in europe-- >> scicluna: all allegations. they are all allegations. >> wertheim: they're allegations that have come out of investigations. these aren't ad hominem attacks... >> scicluna: no. i'm not trying to downplay allegations. allegations are serious. but they are still allegations. you know, it's up to the courts and their procedures and their experts to des-- to decide. >> wertheim: the supporters of daphne caruana galizia have no faith in these experts and procedures, especially when it comes to solving her murder. after a high-profile government raid nearly two years ago, three men were detained-- figures she didn't know and never wrote about. but few doubt the assassination was ordered by one of her many powerful enemies. how will you know when you have justice? >> galizia: when all the corrupt people that she was reporting on, treating our country as a gigantic trough which they're feeding from for years-- when

they've paid the price for that, then there will be justice for my mother's stories. but there also has to be justice for her murder, too. >> wertheim: the old ramparts, designed to protect malta from conquest and colonization, still stand tall. but outside forces that once might have invaded the country now look on with concern, waiting to see whether malta can confront itself, and move in from the center of the fringes. ( ticking ) >> daphne's voice... >> i have to say, it is a very corrupt country. >> ...inspires a group of journalists who are continuing to report her unfinished work. go to 60minutesovertime.com. to report her unfinished work. go to 60minutesovertime.com. sponsored by pfizer. quit slow turkey. along with support, chantix is proven to help you quit.

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( ticking ) >> stahl: you never know who's going to be the one with the big idea. history has shown it's not necessarily the person with the most impressive credentials. a breakthrough can come from the least expected-- perhaps, like an 81-year-old eccentric from massachusetts, who toiled in isolation with no financial support for more than a decade. his focus? a challenge that has stumped scientists for many years: how to transform inedible plant life into environmentally- friendly transportation fuels in a clean and cost-effective way. as we first told you in january, this unlikely inventor calls himself "messianic"-- as in, the messiah-- and likes to say, matter-of-factly, that he is "saving the world." and that's what you think?

>> marshall medoff: yes. >> stahl: you think, "i'm saving the world." >> medoff: i don't think. i don't think-- i know that. >> stahl: who says things like that? marshall medoff does. he's a man on a mission, who decided one day that he was going to stop global warming. >> medoff: when i realized what was going on here, i said, this is an emergency. we've got to find new resources. we've got to find new ways of saving the universe, in terms of global warming and so forth and so on. >> stahl: what was your science education? >> medoff: zero. >> stahl: so, no degree in chemistry? >> medoff: oh, of course not. i didn't have any degree in chemistry. >> stahl: what's your i.q.? >> medoff: i have no idea about i.q.s. ( laughs ) >> stahl: medoff has been called a genius. 25 years ago, he became obsessed with the environment, and decided to abandon his business career and become an amateur scientist. but while engineers, geologists and ecologists with ph.ds went to labs at m.i.t. and stanford, medoff went to one of the country's most legendary

settings for reflection. >> medoff: i used to run out to walden, which wasn't that far away. >> stahl: you mean walden pond? thoreau? >> medoff: yeah, yeah. >> stahl: okay. >> medoff: what i thought was, the reason people were failing is, they were trying to overcome nature instead of working with it. >> stahl: he knew that there's a lot of energy in plant life. it's in the form of sugar molecules that, once accessed, can be converted into transportation fuel. the key word is "access." this sugar is nearly impossible to extract cheaply and cleanly, since it is locked tightly inside the plant's cellulose, the main part of a plant's cellular walls. what's so tantalizing is that sugar-rich cellulose is the most abundant biological material on earth. >> medoff: cellulose is everywhere. i mean, there's just so much cellulose in the world, and nobody had managed to use any of it.

couldn't get at it. >> stahl: so that was your target. >> medoff: that was my target. so, once i decided to do that, i said, "wow, if i can break through this, we can increase the resources of the world maybe by a third, or more, who knows?" >> stahl: to figure out how to break through cellulose to get at the sugars, marshall medoff did something that most of us wouldn't dream of. he buried himself away in seclusion for more than 15 years in a garage at a storage facility in the middle of nowhere. >> medoff: i didn't have a phone there. nobody could disturb me. and i'd have a pile of papers that i had collected, and i started reading them. >> stahl: the idea that you could solve this big problem-- >> medoff: i know, yeah. >> stahl: --with no science background. >> medoff: yeah. i was-- apparently, i must have had a very good mother who-- who, breastfed me an extra few months or something, because i had a lot of security about the fact that i'd get it done. and i never had any doubts. >> stahl: what about your private life? >> medoff: no, i-- i had to give that up.

>> stahl: you gave up your private life? >> medoff: yeah, of course. because i didn't see anybody from nine in the morning till nine at night, or later. >> stahl: alone in the garage, medoff started churning out ideas and patenting them-- so many, he needed help. >> craig masterman: boxes piled to the ceiling. >> stahl: boxes? and? >> masterman: i was shocked. >> stahl: ( laughs ) at the way this place looked? >> masterman: right. >> stahl: craig masterman was marshall medoff's first hire, ten years ago. he's an m.i.t. graduate in chemistry. >> masterman: he hired me to build a lab. >> stahl: so he hired you to help improve what he was thinking in his head? >> masterman: that's correct. but i implement things. he thinks a lot, i implement a lot of things. and you'll run it at 25 mili ampa beam power. >> stahl: what masterman helped implement was medoff's novel idea of using these large blue machines, called electron accelerators, to break apart nature's chokehold on the valuable sugars inside plant

life, or biomass. machines like these are typically used to strengthen materials such as wiring and cable. medoff's invention was to use the accelerator the opposite way: to break biomass apart. maybe you can tell us how the electron accelerator works? >> masterman: it's pretty simple. it's basically accelerated electricity. and so, what happens is, is that they get accelerated-- >> stahl: downward. >> masterman: downward, where the biomass is, and they ram into the biomass and rip it apart. >> stahl: it doesn't sound that extraordinary when you hear it, except, no one else had thought about it. >> masterman: i think, i think fantastic stuff is simple in hindsight. >> stahl: and none of the big scientists who were working round the clock to figure out how to get the sugars out-- >> masterman: no, they were all messing with things like sulfuric acid and steam explosion and crazy stuff like that, which is very expensive. all that stuff is expensive.

>> stahl: his inventive use of the accelerators caught the attention of investors, who saw a potential gold mine in the technology. they gave medoff's company, xyleco, hundreds of millions of dollars, allowing him to scale up and build this factory in moses lake, washington, so he could turn his invention into reality. here, agricultural residue, like these corn cobs, is trucked in from nearby farms, ground up, blasted by the electron accelerator, and then combined with a proprietary enzyme mix. this process-- medoff's remarkable invention-- releases plant sugars that he's now using to make products he claims will solve some of the world's most intractable problems, affecting not just the environment, but also our health. one of the plant sugars is called xylose. >> masterman: and it has an

unusual property, that your oral bacteria cannot use it. so it won't decay your teeth. >> stahl: sugar that doesn't decay your teeth? >> masterman: yes. >> stahl: hallelujah! ( laughs ) you know? >> medoff: it's healthier sugar. it doesn't do the same things to you. >> stahl: so, you could drink all the coke. you don't have to drink diet coke anymore. >> medoff: no. >> stahl: and it would taste the same? >> medoff: yeah. of course it tastes the same. it tastes-- tastes like real sugar. >> stahl: so i tried it myself. "trust, but verify." if i did that, i wouldn't die. >> angeles dios: no, you wouldn't die. it's just sweet. i mean, it's just... >> stahl: oh, very sweet! very sweet. >> medoff: it's getting a little crowded in here, craig. >> stahl: with the investor funds, medoff also opened a $45 million testing facility in wakefield, massachusetts-- a far cry from the garage. and he hired more than 70 scientists and engineers, who have come up with a sugar-based product aimed at another

impervious problem-- some call it a plague-- the accumulation of plastic debris. you have said that plastic should be outlawed. >> medoff: yes, the plastics that are being used should be, because all they're doing is accumulating. and there's an enormous amount of ocean that's being despoiled. >> stahl: but if you take a plastic bag, or a plastic bottle of diet pepsi or whatever, and throw it away, it could be there for 500 years. >> medoff: more. >> stahl: most plastics are made from petroleum. medoff makes plastic from plants. it seemed to us that his product was hard to distinguish from regular plastic, except in one key way. chemical engineer david jablonski says that xyleco's bio-plastic invention can be programmed to disintegrate over specific time spans, ranging from years to as qui a 11 weeks. >> david jablonski: you can just take this, and you can find that

this is very degraded. >> stahl: oh, it's falling apart! so in 11 weeks, it's already on its way to disintegrating? >> jablonski: that is correct. >> stahl: perhaps medoff's most consequential discovery is how to extract the plant sugars and convert them into to environmentally-friendly bio-fuels: ethanol, gasoline and jet fuel. and i'm told that you call this thing a still. >> medoff: it is a still. >> stahl: it is a still? >> medoff: it's actually making alcohol right now. alcohol that you can drink, or you can put in your car, or you can do both. here we are, on the road again. >> stahl: so marshall, i am driving a huge truck, on biomass fuel. it doesn't feel any different than normal gas to me. >> medoff: no. it wouldn't, no. >> stahl: medoff's ethanol is much better than regular corn ethanol in terms of greenhouse

gas emissions-- 77% better, according to a study that was independently reviewed. >> medoff: yeah, it's a very einsteinian solution. you know, i-- >> stahl: einsteinian, really? like einstein? >> medoff: yeah, yeah. >> robert armstrong: i was first a little bit skeptical. it seemed almost too good to be true. >> stahl: and you had never heard of him, i'm sure of that. >> armstrong: i had not heard of him. >> stahl: robert armstrong, the former head of m.i.t.'s chemical engineering department, joined xyleco's board of directors after medoff told him about the electron beam accelerator, his inventive way of breaking down biomass. >> armstrong: the electron beam is truly a game changer. >> stahl: i was told that it's the holy grail, getting access to the sugars. >> armstrong: people at m.i.t. are working on it, people in the national labs, but nobody's gotten it done yet. >> stahl: has xyleco done it? >> armstrong: xyleco has done it. >> medoff: yeah, he knew i did it. >> stahl: and now he's lured some pretty powerful men to his

board of directors, including former shell oil executive sir john jennings, and three former cabinet secretaries- steve chu of the department of energy, george shultz, former secretary of state, and former defense secretary, william perry. >> william perry: well, i thought he was another thomas edison. >> stahl: another thomas edison? >> perry: another thomas edison. a genius. a very eccentric genius, but a genius who had come up with this totally revolutionary idea. >> dr. steven chu: he definitely is a character. i come from a world of characters, in my scientific world. >> stahl: but he's not a scientist. >> chu: but he has all the attributes to many successful scientists. you have to believe in yourself. you have to say, "this is going to work." >> stahl: is there enough biomass to supply enough of this ethanol and gasoline in the world? >> chu: it can make a significant dent. >> stahl: a possible 30% dent in the petroleum market, according

to a report by the department of energy. but the question is, can marshall medoff scale up his operation enough to compete with the oil industry? >> perry: what is in doubt in my mind is how long it's going to take, breaking into these huge industrial markets, established markets, with established companies. that's going to be a big undertaking. >> john jennings: it won't turn off oil and gas overnight, obviously. it won't turn off coal. it won't turn off nuclear. it won't turn off all the other sources of energy. but it will find its place. and i think it will find it relatively quickly, because of all the boxes that it ticks. >> stahl: one of those boxes is that xyleco's fuels could be easily dropped into the pumps at existing gas stations. >> medoff: you wouldn't have to change anything. >> stahl: i can just put it right in my car-- >> medoff: just like we did with the truck. >> stahl: and also go right up to the pump and get it the same way? >> medoff: exactly. >> stahl: transportation fuels that are clean-green.

plastic that disintegrates. sugar that doesn't rot your teeth. it's hard to believe. but it all flowed from the mind of the most unlikely of amateur scientists, who was inspired not by any academic laboratory, but by his owns musings at walden pond. ( ticking ) don't give it up ♪ ♪ i want it all ♪ 'cause there's nothing like this feeling, baby ♪ now that i've found you ♪ ♪ now that i've found you ♪ ah. the netherland's stropewafel mcto get one, you'd have to... take a plane. take a train. take a boat.

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