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A business conditions report for midwestern states indicates that economic growth has slowed overall, but ethanol is helping to fuel growth in at least one of the states.

In a monthly survey of supply managers in nine states, Creighton University’s Economic Forecasting Group found that Nebraska’s leading economic indicator, the Business Conditions Index, increased slightly for October. According to Creighton University Economics Professor Ernie Goss, “Aided by the construction of ethanol plants and ethanol production, non-urban areas of Nebraska continue to grow. Growth will be healthy into the first quarter of 2007 as high agricultural commodity prices assist rural communities that received adequate rainfall. In the urban areas, the transportation sector was a driver of October growth.”

States included in the survey are Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma and South Dakota.

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Consumers can find out the latest prices for E85 all over the country with the click of a mouse at E85prices.com.

According to the website, the price of E85 fell significantly last month and the spread between unleaded and E85 has now widened to about 40 cents per gallon in many areas.

The price of E85 is below $2.00 a gallon in 7 States – Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, North Dakota, Missouri, Illinois and Nebraska.

The lowest price for E85 in the nation was reported in Perryville, Missouri at $1.61 a gallon.

Texas-based Panda Energy has announced plans to build another 100 million gallon-per-year ethanol plant powered by manure.

According to the company, the latest plant will be located near the city of Muleshoe in Bailey County, Texas.

The Muleshoe facility will generate the steam used in the ethanol manufacturing process by gasifying more than 1 billion pounds of cattle manure a year. Once complete, it will be one of the most fuel efficient ethanol refineries in the nation and equal in size to Panda’s Hereford facility, currently under construction, which will be the largest biomass-fueled ethanol plant in the United States.

The Muleshoe facility is the sixth 100 million gallon ethanol project announced by Panda, and the fourth to be powered by cattle manure.

Last week, Panda announced that it intends to build a 100 million gallon-per-year ethanol plant in Lincoln County, Nebraska which will be fueled with the more traditional natural gas instead of biomass.

Illinois Central Ethanol, or ICE, has announced plans for the development of an ethanol production facility in Nokomis, Illinois. The Montgomery County plant is projected to produce 50 million gallons of ethanol annually.

The dry mill plant will use an estimated 18 million bushels of corn annually, according to Don Frank, ICE board president, “which will provide a good local market for corn farmers in the surrounding areas.