11-15 IAN Burley Ethanol

 Is ethanol in Idaho going to put money on producers’ tables or is there more money in produce on consumers tables? I’m DS and…

The ethanol plant is up and running again in Burley and Idaho’s Director of Energy Development, Paul Kjellander has some thoughts about what this plant can do: “ There is some good news. The NW ethanol facility in Burley that had gone through bankruptcy and had to shutter, is open again. That facility at full capacity can provide about 10% of our transportation fuel and that’s fuel that’s produced within the State. That’s promising to see that things are turning around. When we look at ethanol, it’s a boom-bust industry that’s tied to the price of fuel at the pumps. As the price of petroleum products continues to rise, ethanol is now back in the money and we can see if these things turn around. Long term we’re very interested to see what direction bio-fuels specifically are going to take. The problem we face is that the crops that are used for fuel can produce more revenue as crops than as fuel.”