Evansville Observer: Gazette; Evansville Crushing Plant---the update?

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Gazette; Evansville Crushing Plant---the update?

Click on the post. Yes I wonder about the current status.

3 comments:

Anonymous9:52 AM
"The latest" as you put it is from April 2008.
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Anonymous9:57 AM
I've been out of the loop, but I wonder what the status of the crushing facility is? Is it on target to start next month? With the price of soybeans low, I would think now would be the time for "North Prairie Productions", to be able to build the bio-diesel plant again. With the cost of all commodities down, all construction materials would cost less, and the bidding process would be highly competitive. I think they have the tiger by the tail now. Carpe diem.

Also, if they don't build the crushing facility, what happens to the 4 million?

I would like to see it spent on farmland preservation around Evansville. For a city that never turns down a photo opp. for being Green, they sure don't mind planting houses, or fire stations on some of the most elite farmland in the state.

I hope for the sake of saving face, that the crushing plant does become reality, otherwise I think Evansville will be known as the city who cried wolf.
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Anonymous9:30 AM
It is possible the crush plant is economically viable. At present fuel prices it probably is not. At $4 gas and diesel it probably is.

Biodiesel is probably never going to be economically viable. The petroleum and natural gas derived inputs needed to produce the soybeans require more fossil fuel energy for manufacture and transport than can retrieved from the soybean oil. Therefore soybean oil will always have a higher cost, when made into an engine fuel, than petroleum and gas derived products. Soy oil is most wisely used as a food for people.

As petroleum becomes more expensive, which it will, various gas and liquid hydrocarbon fuels will be manufactured from coal and other mineral deposits. This is inevitable without acceptance of major social and technological change.

"Renewable energy" is a fantasy except at very high energy costs indeed. Reliance on "renewable energy" implies a return to horse drawn agriculture with half of the population working on farms. The average standard of living would be more like it was in 1900 than what we have grown up with.

If you find my conclusion fantastic (or at least unpleasant) I suggest you run the numbers yourself.

Bear Market Trader
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