This issue really confuses me. If the government is tauting the benefits of biofuels, ethanol, etc., then why are the people against this? According to our government, they are pushing for biofuels as a result of public oppinion...so then why would our public be so different?

Our tax dollars are going to work to offset costs of biofuel plants all across the country...but we won't take advantage of that money....we just wanted the money for ball parks, for convention centers, and of course now a trolley.

Just how many hoops are too many for a company to have to jump through????

Trucks or train will bring the corn. Trucks or trains will haul away the alcohol. There is no surplus of corn in this region. Makes no sense to transport the corn here to make it into something that can be transported here.

Unless the whole scheme is to grab some subsidy bucks on top of the normal profit.

Doesn't it make more sense, use of resources wise, to make the fuel where the surplus is? Cuts down on transport costs, no?
The same government "tauting biofuels" has not enforced CAFE, Corporate Average Fuel Economy, standards they imposed. Where would we be, if they had?

I don't see where transport cuts would happen. The ethanol is already transported from the midwest to out here in the east. Build a plant here, you'd transport corn to here, then alcohol east. No real difference in miles. May result in the need for a few more hoppers and a few less tank cars. Then corn is also not hazmat, while alcohol is.

No, not all the corn would come from here, but I'm sure some would. Then you'd have the byproducts that could be sold locally.

And does anyone know why we are harping on the smell issue? This plant would be located next to a dozen chicken houses....

edited for spelling.

Did they do a siting hearing on the chickens for malodors?

I know, it's amazing how many people around here are more concerned about how a project is going to have an affect on the aesthetics of their environment than the potential benefits on the environment. There was actually a woman (I'm assuming) on another board for an article some weeks ago about generating energy through windmills, and her "big concern" or "main concern", whichever, was how this was going to sully the landscape for her. This was her big concern. I will never get over that. I'm sorry, but this sounds so idiotic to me, and yet there are so many in this woman's company that just immediately dismiss a project because it might mean that if they randomly turn their heads they might have to briefly glance at something that's not pretty. Waaah! By the way, I could think of a lot of worse things to briefly glance at than some windmills, like some of these fugly giant SUV's and the gas price signs.