Officials with Inland Pacific Energy Center of Stanfield, Oregon are looking at a $504 million financing deal from an undisclosed European source.
This story from the East Oregonian news web site says the deal will go to finish a 96-million-gallon-per-year biodiesel plant, 120-million-gallon ethanol plant, and feed mill project:
Bob Doughty, project manager for the Inland Pacific Energy Center, said this week funding for the project is making good progress, but he’s being cautious about this proposal and has obtained some high-powered help to investigate it.
“The proposal is for $504 million in debt financing,” Doughty said. “It is proposed as a typical ‘draw down’ construction loan, which will roll into permanent financing.”
Doughty said he couldn’t disclose the name of the firm because negotiations still are under way on some details.
“I have investigated the proposal as best I can on my own and so far, it looks to be legitimate,” he said.
In addition, Doughty solicited help from Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., to have the appropriate federal agencies investigate the firm and its proposal thoroughly.
“This proposal is just what the project needs if it is legitimate and complies with all federal and state regulations,” Doughty wrote Smith Nov. 16. “If it is not legitimate, it will be a disaster.”
When done as projected in 2010, the nearly 500 acre facility will employ up to 600 people.
Bob Dinneen, president of the 
TPI will begin construction next week on a 316,000-square-foot wind turbine blade factory.
Linc Energy and Bio Clean Coal announced the creation of the company last week and said they would spend $1 million over the next year to build a prototype bioreactor.
The University of Minnesota Twin Cities campus is hosting an energy, economic and environmental – or E3 – conference this week. 
Scientists at Stanford University are looking at a way to connect North America’s wind farms, making wind power less intermittent than its source.
Besides providing a steady production of electricity, connecting wind farms would present other cost benefits by “reducing the total distance that all the power has to travel from the multiple points of origin to the destination point” and by combining all the power on a single transmission line.
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Joe Biden (D-Delaware) has unveiled a five-year, $50 billion energy plan akin to the Apollo project that put men on the moon during a campaign stop in Iowa.
General Motors and the U.S. Department of Energy have invited the media to ride in the vehicles participating in the Challenge X Competition… a multi-year engineering competition that has 17 university teams from across North America in a real-world engineering experience to develop GM vehicles in the company’s global vehicle development process. The idea is the teams will create advanced propulsion technology systems that increase energy efficiency and reduce environmental impact through hybrid, plug-in, or fuel cell systems, powered by alternative fuels such as biodiesel, ethanol and hydrogen.
A state program administered by the Iowa Department of Economic Development has handed out $563,800 to 21 Iowa retailers installing pumps for E-85 and biodiesel fuel, terminals installing biodiesel storage tanks and blending equipment, and tank wagons for farm delivery having dedicated compartments for E-85 and biodiesel.
There´s no denying the capability for the use of ethanol is a few steps ahead of the infrastructure for accessing the alternative fuel. But, that doesn´t mean consumers can´t fill up their flex-fuel vehicles with E85 without ease. Simply log on to