06/06/06 Iogen still waiting on `Uncle Sam`

Iogen Corporation has been looking at eastern Idaho for a couple of years now but the Canadian based company still isn't ready to break ground on an ethanol production plant using straw as its feed stock. Maurice Hladk says they're waiting to see if the US Department of Energy will come up with loan guarantees on the 300 million dollar project. HLADK "Several communities that could supply good quantities and reliable quantities of agricultural residue but the way we see the industry settling down pretty quickly is after the agricultural residue topped out by dedicated crops such as switch grass on the marginal farmlands." Eastern Idaho is Iogen's first choice for a plant if it's built in the US. If the Canadian government comes up with loan guarantees and other incentives first Iogen will probably build there. Iogen has commitments from hundreds of eastern Idaho grain growers willing to supply the plant with barley and wheat straw which in turn would be used to produce 60 million gallons of ethanol per year. HLADK "Our costs of production now are approaching that for corn grain ethanol, well under a $1.50 a gallon." It could be October before the loan guarantee issue is settled. Iogen officials say they'd like to break ground on the ethanol plant in the fall of 2007. Today's Idaho Ag News Bill Scott