At today’s Ethanol 2008: Emerging Issues Forum one of the speakers was Dave Vander Griend, President/CEO ICM, Inc. Dave spoke about financing new technologies and the move toward a market based incentive system. I spoke with him afterward.

He says that he continues to believe that the ethanol industry is solid and that there are opportunities. Right now he says the industry is experiencing a bump in the road with the higher corn prices and depressed ethanol prices. However, that’s something he says you see every 4 to 5 years in the grain markets.

According to Dave, one of the challenges right now is a lack of support in the lending community since they’re a reactionary group. They see something that’s not highly profitable today and as he puts it “they run and do something else.” But he says that although there are tight margins right now, in 2 years they’ll be great just like they were 2 years ago. So he says that a little more long term thinking on the part of lenders would be very helpful.

One of the things he’d most like to see happen is a long term strategy in Washington. It’s one thing he says to set a goal but there needs to be a plan in place to make it happen.

You can listen to my interview with Dave here: [audio:http://www.zimmcomm.biz/ethanol/ne-ethanol-08-griend.mp3]