Binghamton, NY-based Alternative Fuels, Inc. is looking at putting a biodiesel plant in Northeast Pennsylvania after the state has come up a $1 million grant to help the refiner make biodiesel out of algae.
This story in the Wilkes-Barre (PA) Times Leader says the company has several options where it could relocate, and company officials seem pretty serious about the move:
Precisely where the company will relocate is yet to be determined, but chief executive officer Richard Smith said he’s expanded his search for sites in Luzerne County (in Northeastern Pennsylvania).
In an e-mail Friday, Smith said he is looking at four locations. He intends to further narrow the selection process in the next week.
“The right spot is tough to find,” Smith said.
Smith has until the end of the year to get his production facility up and running in order to receive the state funding. The “Moving to Pennsylvania” notice on his company’s Web site and a published report Tuesday in the Binghamton Press & Sun Bulletin that Smith is selling his biodiesel plant there could be indications he’s serious about meeting the deadline.
Last October, Smith’s company was one of the recipients of $10 million in Alternative Fuels Incentive Grants awarded by Gov. Ed Rendell as part of his energy program to reduce the state’s dependence on fossil fuels, especially from politically unstable or hostile nations.
Alternative Fuels, Inc’s timing couldn’t be better as the announcement comes on the heels of $100-a-barrel crude oil.