Posted on 05/09/2006 10:08:21 AM PDT by areafiftyone
Construction of New York's first dry mill ethanol plant is scheduled to begin this summer, with the state contributing nearly $6 million as part of a strategy to reduce dependence on foreign energy, Gov. George Pataki said.
Western New York Energy's $87.4 million Orleans County facility is expected to produce about 50 million gallons of the fuel each year.
The clean-burning, corn-based product is combined with gasoline to produce a blended, higher octane fuel. The plant will buy an estimated 20 million bushels of corn each year, 6 million from western New York, opening a new market for the state's farms. It will employ 58 people.
The facility ''will help us take advantage of this opportunity to reduce our dependence on unstable foreign energy supplies,'' Pataki said Monday near the 144-acre site of the future plant in Shelby, a town of about 5,400.
Pataki, the first northeast governor to join the Governors Ethanol Coalition, also announced a $20 million program to develop more efficient ethanol technology, known as cellulosic ethanol.
''Ethanol from corn is relatively inefficient. You might have to put a unit of energy in to get two units of energy out _ 1.67 out,'' Pataki said. ''But the next generation of technology, instead of just using the sugar in the corn, is going to be able to use the cellulose from the corn, from the corn stalk, from grasses, from trees, from lumber mills. And there the efficiency is as high as 20-to-1.''
The facility also will produce two byproducts that will be marketed for sale: carbon dioxide, used for beverage carbonation and freeze drying, and distiller's dried grains, a high-protein livestock feed.
''It's an exciting day for those of us who produce the corn or are in the dairy industry and can take advantage of the .... grain,'' said New York Farm Bureau President John Lincoln.
The western New York plant, using a process that grinds the entire corn kernel into flour and converts the starch into ethanol via fermentation, is expected to begin production in January 2008.
The average price of unleaded gasoline in New York was $3.12 per gallon Monday, with the national average at $2.90, according to the motorists' club AAA.
The Shelby plant ''is a great thing. Ethanol is not going to solve our gas problems, but every little bit helps when the price is so high,'' said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.
The new plant will be a wind fall for out of work day laborers.
It'll feature a private pipeline to Sen. Kennedy's office.
Excellent news!
thanks for posting!
and be up and running in January 2008! Fantastic!
This is great news. We need more of them around the country!
I was enthused until I reached the last line of the article.
Mr. Schumer is pleased. Uh-oh.
Sounds good...but if Schumer has a hand in it something will get screwed up.
Don't ya see - If this is a success this will cut into UPCHUCK'S photo-op time!
well American & Americans could learn a lot from Brazil who has completely gotten off the foreign oil addiction with increased domestic oil drilling and ethanol production!
Yep, Schumer will travel to the upstate region of NY and smile for the camra.. as he does every few yrs. He will stand out there with a few ethanol/gas comparison charts with a big smile on his face for the camra.
He spends most of his time when he is in NY down in the hornets nest of NYC- hes better off hanging out there than in my area!
"Schumer will travel to the upstate region of NY and smile for the camra.. as he does every few yrs. He will stand out there with a few ethanol/gas comparison charts with a big smile on his face for the camera."
And then run back to the other Dem stooges to figure out how they can tax all of this.
You know, you are positively correct! Here in DC, we think the most dangerous piece of real estate in town is between a TV news camera and Senator Schumer.
A group of local corn producers is trying to build one here, in Chambersburg, PA, but a bunch of local libs, along with the local yokels who don't want ANYTHING new in their backyard, is fighting tooth and nail to keep it out.
All 54 of them.
Geez, if I had something against the ethanol plant, I'd say so! I hope it brings jobs for many and reduced fuel costs for everyone.
Or is it my dissing Sen. Kennedy that's `snarky'?
Send him natural gas(methane) instead..
Wouldn't work; Sen. Kennedy is already a net methane exporter.
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