By the end of 2007, over three-quarters of the gasoline sold in Nebraska contained ethanol. There are currently 21 ethanol production plants in Nebraska, producing over 1.3 billion gallons of ethanol each year, and the state ranks second nationally in ethanol production.

Nebraska’s first ethanol plant, now known as Chief Ethanol Fuels in Hastings, began production in January, 1985. At the Emerging Issues Forum for ethanol held last week in Omaha, Chief Ethanol general manager Duane Christensen talked about a new organization being formed in the state called the Nebraska Ethanol Producers Association.

“As we’ve gone through the years, the ethanol business was relatively slow in growth and 10-15 years ago you knew everybody in the business,” Christensen said. “The last few years has been a real explosion in production and we have a lot of diversity and the producers in the state decided we needed to have an organization.”

The association will complement the current Nebraska Ethanol Board, not replace it, and will focus primarily on legislative issues. “This is really an organization that is about the ethanol producers themselves,” Christensen says. The organization is so new they are still in the developmental phase, but hope to have more information for producers in the next few weeks.

You can listen to Chuck’s interview with Duane here: [audio:http://www.zimmcomm.biz/ethanol/duane-christensen.mp3]