MAYBE THIS NEWS WILL HELP? ARE THEY SPEAKING ABOUT US? MULTI MILLION DOLLAR QUESTION...
Pennsylvania Says Company May Build State's First Ethanol Plant
2006-04-17 16:10 (New York)
By Bruce Blythe
April 17 (Bloomberg) -- An unnamed company may announce
construction of Pennsylvania's first ethanol plant as demand for
the fuel additive increases, a spokesman for the state
environmental department said.
The company is ``looking at'' possible sites in the central
part of Pennsylvania to build the plant, Kurt Knaus, press
secretary for state environmental department secretary Kathleen
McGinty, said in a phone interview today. He declined to specify
which company is involved or when construction would start. Any
decision on the project is ``a few months off,'' Knaus said.
``We have some other companies looking at different parts of
the state as well,'' Knaus said. Pennsylvania is a ``prime
market'' for ethanol production ``because of our position in the
Northeast,'' Knaus said.
Demand for ethanol, used to make gasoline burn more
completely, is increasing because of the phase-out of a MTBE, or
methyl tertiary butyl ether, a rival additive. Ethanol use is
also being advocated by President George W. Bush, who in August
signed an energy bill requiring oil companies to use 7.5 billion
gallons of ethanol in gasoline annually by 2012, up from about 4
billion gallons in 2005.
A ``very substantial'' company is close to announcing
intentions to build a ``massive'' ethanol plant in central
Pennsylvania, McGinty said in an April 14 interview with
Associated Press.
The ethanol plant may be the largest one built east of the
Mississippi River and may be constructed within a year, MiGinty
told Associated Press, declining to name the company.
--Editor: Link.
Story illustration: Click on {ETHCTOTL <Index> GP <GO>} for
the average U.S. price of ethanol during the past year. See
the performance of the Chicago Board of Trade's ethanol
contract, type {DL1 <Cmdty> GPO <GO>}. For top energy news,
see {OTOP <GO>}.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Bruce Blythe in Chicago at (1) (312) 443-5927 or
bblythe@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Robert Dieterich at (1) (212) 617-4485 or
rdieterich@bloomberg.net.
