Another One Bites the Cob - Prairie Creek Ethanol Pulls the Plug on Iowa Ethanol Plant

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Member-owned ethanol start-up Prairie Creek Ethanol LLC (Goldfield, Iowa), has pulled the plug on plans to build a new fuel ethanol plant in Wesley, Iowa. Cancellation of these projects seems to be a growing trend in the Alternative Fuels Industry as corn prices have reached an all-time high, and the future of ethanol remains uncertain. After three years of planning, the project and developers were unable to raise the capital to move the project into the next phase of development.

The company has put a great deal of effort into the project with numerous meetings and countless hours spent on planning, discussion and presentation for the estimated $196 million project, a joint venture of the Gold Eagle Cooperative (Goldfield, Iowa), North Central Cooperative (Clarion, Iowa), ethanol producer Corn LP (Goldfield, Iowa) and outside investors.

As of March of this year, shares of $5,000 each were still being sold, and the venture was optimistic that the project would move forward. The board of directors convened for a meeting in late May and voted to terminate the equity drive for the project, thus putting an end to the planned plant.

The company had been working with Fagen Incorporated (Granite Falls, Minnesota) on engineering, and much time had been spent on design, permitting and funding the project. The plant was to produce 100 million gallons per year of ethanol and produce 300,000 tons per year of distillers dried grains from some 36,000 bushels of member-grown corn.

Over 25 new planned ethanol plant projects have been put on-hold or cancelled since June of this year. Only a handful of new ethanol plants have started construction during the 2008 calendar year. Seven new plants went online during June of this year, bringing the U.S. operational plant count to 161 facilities. The country now has the ability to produce over 9.3 billion gallons of the renewable fuel.

Industrial Info's Ethanol Database provides a comprehensive outline of all current development activities in the emerging alternative fuels market. This database covers 156 ethanol plants in operation and 530 plants under development. It also covers 98 operational biodiesel plants and 245 biodiesel plants under development.

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