01/19/07 Ethanol plant expansion; apples & oranges

Washington Ag January 19, 2007 A Texas based biofuels company has entered an agreement to renovate and expand an existing ethanol plant near Moses Lake. Tommy Foltz is Vice President of Public Affairs for Earth Biofuels, whose subsidiary Earth Ethanol will have a controlling interest and run the plant. Foltz: "It is a facility that will eventually be a 36 million gallon per year ethanol producer, but that will ratchet up over time from 12 million to 24, then 36 million." And that's planned by the end of 2007. A release from Earth Biofuels says the upgraded facility will be able to process both corn and barley as feedstock for ethanol, which will help reduce exposure to rapidly changing corn or barley prices. Foltz says: Foltz: "Just like any other fuel producer we are trying to provide the high quality and lowest cost product that we can, so we will get our feedstock based on that." Most of the ethanol will be marketed in western Washington. Washington's apple industry is benefiting from the freeze of the orange crop in California. Retailers are expected to replace ads for oranges with ads for apples. And Washington apple packers have already seen an increase in sales in recent days. That could mean stronger prices for growers who still have apples to sell. I'm Bob Hoff.