West beats East Ethanol Plant.

[Redhead 18]

Ethanol plant gains KDHE permit; another is denied block grant
By Jon Ruhlen - The Hutchinson News - jruhlen@hutchnews.com

DODGE CITY - It was a case of good news, bad news for Kim Goodnight on Wednesday.

On one hand, the Ford County Commission chairman was excited to hear the Kansas Department of Health and Environment had approved an air-quality permit for a proposed Dial Energy ethanol plant west of Dodge City.

On the other, he was disappointed by the denial of a community development block grant for the Boot Hill Biofuels plant near Wright, east of Dodge City.

"It was good news on one side, discouraging news on the other side," Goodnight said.

The grant for the ethanol plant near Wright, with a capacity for 110 mllion gallons a year, was denied because the company has not been able to raise $71 million in liability capital, Goodnight said.

Gary Harshberger, president of Boot Hill Biofuels, said the fundraising slowdown was due to several factors - higher corn prices, lower ethanol prices, higher construction costs and the overall effect of the subprime mortgage collapse on lending institutions.

Harshberger said company officials hope to resume efforts to raise capital by the first of the year. Boot Hill Biofuels can reapply for the grant once it has raised enough money.

But Goodnight was encouraged by the news regarding the Dial plant, which will have a capacity of 124 million gallons a year.

"There was a period of time where we haven't heard a whole lot, and we're excited," Goodnight said.

The recent decision by KDHE Secretary Roderick Bremby to deny an air-quality permit for a pair of coal-fired power plants in Holcomb cast some doubt on air-quality permits for other projects.

Dave Wehner, managing partner for Dial Bio-Renewable Fuels, based in Omaha, Neb., said company officials expected a slight delay because of the decision.

"We just knew it would take a few extra days," Wehner said, noting that there were no comments during the public notice period for the permit.

The permit is just one of many required before the plant is up and running. There are so many permits, in fact, that Dial has hired a firm that does nothing but handle permits.

There is no start date for construction on the plant, about four miles west of Dodge City, south of U.S. 50.

"We will go to the ground as quickly as the system will allow us to," Wehner said.

According to a KDHE press release, other air-quality permits under consideration do not approach the magnitude of the Sunflower proposal and probably won't experience delays.

The Dial plant has the potential to emit 600,000 tons of carbon dioxide per year at full capacity, compared to 11 million tons of carbon dioxide per year that would be produced by the Sunflower plants.

[Bubba]

Our county grants an extension on the building of the plant while Newsweek magazine tells the REAL story about Ethanol. It is BAD for our environment!

Ethanol Boom Saps Water | Newsweek Project Green | Newsweek.com

[Mike B.]

Originally Posted by Bubba

Our county grants an extension on the building of the plant while Newsweek magazine tells the REAL story about Ethanol. It is BAD for our environment!

Ethanol Boom Saps Water | Newsweek Project Green | Newsweek.com

There's alot going on in this city and county that just isn't right! But as long as the "right" people keep making money at others expense it'll keep happening!