From the Road: Journal Entries from the Campaign Trail

Scott Tours Five Ethanol Plants
2006-07-18

""Everybody who works here has got a little heart, blood and soul in this place.""

That was how plant engineer Trampas Osborne kicked off Scott’s tour of the Midwest Renewable Energy Ethanol Plant in Sutherland.

Over the course of the last several days, Scott has toured ethanol plants in Columbus, Central City, Lexington and Sutherland. Yesterday he toured a site in Ord where they have begun construction of a brand new ethanol plant.

Nebraska’s ethanol output in expected to more than double in the next five years, and each one of the plants Scott toured is slated for a major expansion. The Cornhusker Energy Plant in Lexington will increase production from 40 million gallons a year to 300 million.

There are currently 12 ethanol plants in operation in the state. Together, they employ more than 1,000 people and consume one third of the states’s corn.

Scott Tours Central City Plant

The Platte Valley Fuel Ethanol plant in Central City plant is nearly finished with an expansion that takes the plant from 50 million gallons a year to 100 million gallons a year. The plant will increase its consumption of local corn from 15 million bushels annually to 30 million bushels annually, plant manager Doug Anderson told Scott.

For the first time, the plant will have to import corn from surrounding counties, because Merrick County produces just 18 million bushels of corn annually.

At the Sutherland Plant, Scott meet with employees who relocated to Nebraska from Montana and South Dakota, drawn by the high paying jobs and opportunities for career advancement in a quickly growing industry.

""We are all used to hearing how talented young people leave Nebraska in search of career advancement,"" Scott said. ""Here is an example of the opposite happening. As this industry continues to expand, and we discover more profitable uses for ethanol by-products, small towns like Sutherland will be the primary beneficiaries.""

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