This announcement suggests that there was no business case for the ethanol plant in Klamath Falls and that the people of Oregon can be thankful that they are not going to be paying more in taxes to subsidize this plant even as the already critical water problems would have been made just that much worse. Sometimes — often, when chasing industrial facilities — the “losers” turn out to be winners, and the “winners” (the ones who won the subsidy derby) to be the losers.

Company to build ethanol plant in Midwest, instead of Oregon

6/16/2007, 9:18 a.m. PT The Associated Press

KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. (AP) — A Seattle company that considered building a $150 million ethanol plant in Oregon has decided to build the plant in the Midwest, officials said.

Trey Senn, executive director of Klamath County Economic Development Association, said he was disappointed that the company, E-85, rejected the site near the Klamath Falls airport.

Senn said company officials did not provide details about why they rejected the Klamath Falls site, but they indicated it would be easier to build the facility in the Midwest.

E-85 officials began looking at the Klamath Basin in spring 2006, analyzing the availability of water, rail and a workforce to operate the facility. Plans for the facility included production of 100 million gallons of ethanol a year, made from corn shipped by rail from the Midwest.

The plant would have employed up to 40 people.

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 17th, 2007 at 9:23 am and is filed under Economy, Energy Future, Environment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.