Ethanol Entrepreneurs Making Their Moves
The Associated Press:
The newspaper publisher, the watermelon farmer, the metal fabricator and the housewife gathered about a year ago and decided to take the plunge into the business of biofuels.
Yes, the nearest ethanol pump to their central Georgia town of Dublin was 45 miles away. And yes, they didn’t know much about the ethanol industry. But it was as much a philosophical matter as an entrepreneurial one: They were tired of waiting for big corporations to act first.
“We’re trying to take care of our families, our communities,” said Buddy Coleman, the metal fabricator who is helping design the medium-sized still they’re building. “It’s going to take it all. Big guys and little guys. It’s going to take all of it to fuel this demand, for us to be independent.”
Across the country, small entrepreneurs are creating their own answers to the nation’s fuel crunch, turning fruit juices, tree scraps, stale beer and flat soft drinks into fuel. And while big producers are driving much of the biofuels’ growth, it’s these garage-level entrepreneurs that have helped sustain the industry over the last few decades.
Ethanol producers produced just under 5 billion gallons of the fuel in 2006 and will be producing about 6.5 billion gallons this year, according to the Renewable Fuels Association, a trade association representing the U.S. ethanol industry.
“It will take everybody to make this movement work,” said Hartwig, the group’s spokesman. “I’m not speaking strictly about ethanol. We’re going to need ethanol production, biodiesel production and new technologies. We’re going to need it all if we’re going to achieve the goals most Americans say they want to achieve.”
No related posts.
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
