A long delay in permitting has led POET, the world’s largest producer of ethanol, to cancel plans for construction of a new facility in Glenville, MN. Larry Ward, Vice President of Project Development for POET, says permitting has delayed the project for over a year.

“When we selected Glenville for a second ethanol production facility, we believed that we would be holding its grand opening sometime around today,” said Larry Ward, Vice President of Project Development for POET. “Early discussions with the appropriate authorities indicated there wouldn’t be any unusual permitting concerns due to the plant’s close proximity to another POET plant. However, permitting has delayed the project by more than a year and has caused a significant amount of additional costs making it less attractive than other potential projects in the Eastern Corn Belt. Our existing plant in Glenville continues to perform very well and it’s still possible that we may construct a second plant in that area sometime in the future, but it likely won’t be in the next few years.”

POET has opened three new ethanol production facilities in the Eastern Corn Belt states of Indiana and Ohio over the past seven months and will open three more in those states before the end of the year. “We also have four additional sites in the eastern Corn Belt that are in some stages of due diligence and we continue to be excited about the possibilities for increased production in those areas,” said Ward.