Mason City, Iowa honored POET Biorefining – Hanlontown at an awards luncheon last week with the mayor and city council.
Mason City Mayor Eric Bookmeyer honored the plant with the “Shining Star Volunteer Award ” for the many ways they reach out to their surrounding communities.
Over the last year, the plant donated time and equipment to paint a railroad bridge, paint and clean along the city trails, and many team members were regular volunteers at the community kitchen.
In a North Iowa Today article, General Manager Kelly Hanson said, “We did not expect this honor and it certainly is not why we volunteer, but we certainly appreciate the award.”
Congratulations to the Hanlontown crew for making the plant such an important part of the surrounding area!
At the America's Grasslands Conference in Sioux Falls this week, I was joined by Steve Apfelbaum, head scientist of The Earth Partners, to announce the launch of Conservation Biomass. Working together, our organizations aim to develop a source biomass that comes from restored marginal lands and is used to produce power. The ultimate goal is to make that biomass cost competitive with current power sources while delivering real environmental benefits.
The conservation biomass will initially be delivered to POET Biorefining - Chancellor, a 100 million gallon per year grain ethanol production facility in Chancellor, S.D. That facility is powered by landfill gas from the Sioux Falls landfill and a solid fuel boiler, where the biomass will be burned. Eventually, we intend to use it as a feedstock for cellulosic ethanol.
We made the announcement at the America's Grasslands Conference because we wanted to seek out the expertise of those who are managing grasslands and restoring native prairies. Steve and I spoke during lunch on the first day of the conference and you can watch our speeches here or on POET TV.
POET will be busy at the 2011 Fuel Ethanol Workshop in Indianapolis, Ind. next week. We will have a couple of speakers, which you can read about in our release, and will host a tour of our newest plant, POET Biorefining - Cloverdale.
Tony Thompson is an investor in POET Biorefining - Bingham Lake (Min.) and his 3,000 acre farm is located about 5 miles south of the plant. A CNN.com profile of Thompson highlights his unique farming practices. But is he all that different? Thompson doesn't think so.
"There's nothing that unusual about me," Thompson said when I talked to him yesterday. "Most of my neighbors are doing the same things I am. They may not do as much research, but many or most good farmers are implementing similar nutrient management systems and watching every unit of nutrient flow through the farm with the output goal being marketable grain…not pollution." Thompson said the real heroes are his crop consultant Steve Sodeman and Fairland Management Company who help him take better care of his land.
Thompson and his two brothers invested in POET Biorefining - Bingham Lake before the plant started up in 1997. They scraped together everything they could to purchase one share in the plant because it was a local outlet for their abundant corn crop. Thompson said he was initially one of the the most reluctant investors in the plant but has since bought out his two brothers.
That plant, where Thompson sells his corn, is also implementing new technologies that take care of natural resources. It was the first POET ethanol plant to install total water recovery, which decreased its water use by 23 percent. Read the story in Vital.
Energy and agriculture can be difficult undertakings, but this plant and farmers like Thompson are doing the best they can, while constantly looking for ways to improve. Be sure to read the entire story on CNN.com and leave your thoughts below.
Some international students studying at Augustana College here in Sioux Falls, S.D. stopped by POET Biorefining – Chancellor Tuesday to learn about biofuel and get a first-hand look at its production.
The students are part of the UGRAD program, sponsored by the U.S. Department of State.
From left to right they are Hamid Aghahuseynov (Azerbaijan), Anzhelika Osmanova (Kazakhstan), Sehar Mushtaq (Pakistan), Cathy Lindamood (Augustana College), Chingiz Rahmanov (Azerbaijan), Rick Serie (POET), Davit Sioridze (Georgia).
Today, POET Biorefining – Marion (Oh.) hosted a visit from Tom Vilsack, Secretary of the U.S. Agriculture Department, and Ted Strickland, Governor of Ohio. The two elected officials were joined by leaders from the Ohio Corn Growers Association, the Ohio Ethanol Producers Association, the FSA and the NRCS.
The group discussed the future prospects for ethanol and agriculture as well as the need to provide greater market access for ethanol. POET CEO Jeff Broin thanked Secretary Vilsack and Governor Strickland for their support of the ethanol industry and both noted the important role that biofuels play in rural America. After voicing a concern for the Midwest where he once served as the Governor of Iowa, Vilsack noted that “biofuels and renewable energy are at the heart of how you restore rural America.”
Both elected officials reiterated their support for moving to E15, which Secretary Vilsack was confident the EPA would allow later this year. The Secretary also talked about how crucial it was to increase the availability of blender pumps that allow consumers to choose their blend of ethanol.
Following the discussion, Broin was joined by plant Manager David Brooks to guide the group on a tour of the facility. POET Biorefining – Marion produces 68 million gallons of ethanol per year, almost all of which is used in the state of Ohio.
Pictured (l to r) Ohio Governor Ted Strickland, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and POET CEO Jeff Broin. To view more photos from the event, go to our flickr page.
Yesterday, during a speech to the employees of Smith Electric Vehicles in Kansas City, Mo., President Obama mentioned POET while he was talking about creating green jobs. The President referenced POET - Biorefining - Macon (Mo.), the plant he visited on April 30. Here is the paragraph on POET:
For the naysayers, they ought to travel all across America and meet the people that I’ve met at places like Navistar in Indiana, where folks are being hired to build new electric trucks; or Siemens Wind Power in Iowa, where they’re making wind turbines in a factory that used to be empty just like this one; or Celgard, which is a battery technology company in North Carolina that hired more than 50 people because of the investments we made; or Poet Biorefinery here in Missouri that’s putting people to work harvesting homegrown energy.
You can read the full text of the President's speech at the White House web site and watch it here (POET mention is at 11:00):
Last weekend saw a storm with damaging wind gusts sweep through the area and down lots of trees in Harrisburg, S.D. Those trees are now being cleaned up by the county but it won’t cost them a dime.
That’s because the trees will be burned in a solid waste fuel boiler to provide power for POET Biorefining – Chancellor. As Lincoln County Emergency Manager Harold Timmerman said to KELO TV: “It's eco-friendly all around. We get rid of the branches through this grinder, and they're able to be used in an effective way.” Watch his interview and the full story here:
Did he say varmints? That’s one benefit of bioenergy production that I had previously thought of. Anyway, if you’re in the area and would like to get rid of some wood waste, simply take it to Mueller Pallets. They’ll grind it up and bring it to our facility. You can find them through their web site.
POET Biorefineries have been a popular tour location for members of our nation's governing body in the past few weeks. Last week, members from the U.S. House Agriculture Committee visited POET Biorefining - Chancellor.
Several topics were covered on the tour from ethanol production to the advancement of cellulosic technology. A big interest for members outside the Corn Belt was the economic boost that jobs from cellulosic ethanol production could bring to their districts.
Pictured from left to right are: Darrin Ihnen, President of the National Corn Growers and board member of POET Biorefining - Chancellor; Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin of South Dakota; Ag Committee Chairman Collin Peterson of Minnesota; POET CEO Jeff Broin; Rep. Mike Conaway of Texas; Rep. Adrian Smith of Nebraska; Rep. Travis Childers of Mississippi; Rep. Mike Rogers of Alabama; Rep. Glenn Thompson of Pennsylvania; Rep. Bob Goodlatte of Virginia.
To say that a presidential visit is a big deal would be like saying that Michael Jordan was a good was a good basketball player. This was the week that POET found out just how big of a deal it really was as President Barack Obama visited POET Biorefining - Macon (Missouri).
The plant first got word of a potential administration visit in late March and quickly started preparing the plant. As the event date got closer, it was confirmed that President Obama was the person considering the visit. For obvious reasons, we had to keep it quiet, but the plant continued to prepare.
We got the final word on Sunday that he would be coming along with Agricultural Secretary Tom Vilsack. The day before, we found out that there were more than 100 members of the press who had requested credentials for the event, not counting the traveling press corp. The morning of the event, there were seven satellite trucks parked outside the grains building and the event was carried live on several TV stations across the country.
It was easy to tell that this was not the first walk around the block for the White House team. They were great to work with and the team at our Macon plant really went the extra mile to make the ethanol plant look its best. Next week is the plant's tenth anniversary and it probably hadn't looked that good since its first.
Although some industry-watchers thought it could have been better, I thought the speech was a ringing endorsement for the work being done by POET and the rest of the ethanol industry. Othersconcurred. You can read the transcript on the White House web site or watch it here:
During the visit, President Obama made it clear that all forms of ethanol have an important role to play in our country's energy future. As POET continues to its ethanol development, we'll do our best not to let the President, or the country, down.
