Good news for drivers and economy

The highway between McCook and Culbertson is one of the busiest stretches of road around, and many of those drivers are probably wondering what's going on with the ethanol plant near the Perry Elevator.

The plant, a small demonstration unit, was expected to be replaced by a $70 million facility last year. Instead, weeds have been sprouting around the components of the overgrown still.

But there was good news from the Red Willow County Commissioners' meeting Monday, when the owners of the ethanol plant, SW Energy LLC, received the county's blessing to build, not a plant with the ability to produce 40 million gallons of fuel-grade ethanol a year, but one capable of churning out 120 million gallons.

The original design, which would cover 71 acres, will be expanded to cover an additional 60 acres, and could ultimately create approximately 45 direct jobs and 150 indirectly related local jobs.

Steve Lipetzky of Springfield, Minn., director of SW Energy LLC, said the plant needed to be larger to win financing.

The county's zoning and planning commission has unanimously endorsed the plan, and the Nebraska Department of Roads already plans to widen the highway and create a turning-lane at the site, which will be needed to handle the extra truck traffic.

For those commuters that pass by every day, the new ethanol plant can't go into production too soon.

According to forecasts, the price of gasoline will easily climb above $3 this summer, and the 33 new ethanol plants under production won't be able to keep up with the demand.

The short-term ethanol shortage will be exacerbated by the phasing out of MTBE, a petrochemical that makes gasoline burn more cleanly but which can contaminate groundwater.

Simple economics have pushed the wholesale price of ethanol to about $2.75 a gallon, or 50 cents higher than normal, improving the balance sheets for ethanol plants like the one planned for Perry.

E-10 gasoline, which is 10 percent alcohol, and E-85, which is 85 percent alcohol and can burn only in accommodating vehicles, remains a bargain because of subsidies.

But even if we pay more for alcohol fuel, the reduced pressure to import oil, and fewer accompanying financial and political repercussions, is worth it.

Not to mention the new jobs and better corn prices the ethanol industry is producing for Southwest Nebraskans.