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A study released today by the National Corn Growers Association says that ethanol plants owned by local farmers provide more economic benefits for communities than those owned by absentee investors.

The study, “Economic Impacts on the Farm Community of Cooperative Ownership of Ethanol Production,” concludes that, “Since a farmer-owned cooperative ethanol plant is literally a member of the community, the full contribution to the local economy is likely to be as much as 56 percent larger than the impact of an absentee-owned corporate plant.”

Two main reasons are given for that conclusion:

1. The share of expenditures for operations of a farmer-owned plant derived in the local community is likely to be larger than that of an absentee-owned plant. For example, virtually all accounting, administrative and marketing functions will be provided locally, while these functions may be centralized off site for an absentee-owned plant.

2. Farmer-owners of a cooperative or limited liability corporation (LLC) ethanol plant will participate in the profits through dividends. Dividends paid to farmer-owners represent additional income that is spent and invested largely in the local community, according to the study.

John Urbanchuk of LECG, LLC, conducted the analysis. The entire report can be viewed in pdf format here.

Everton Energy, a new biofuel company headquartered in Kansas, has announced the appointment of Bert Farrish as the company’s first Chief Executive Officer.

According to a news release, Farrish joins Everton from the United States Department of Agriculture, where he served as Deputy Administrator for Commodity Operations for the Farm Service Agency. In this role, Farrish was directly responsible for the administration of the United States bio-diesel and ethanol bio-energy program.

“Our vision is to build a fully integrated energy production and marketing company, using the latest technological developments in bio-energy,” said Farrish. “We are in a unique position to take a leadership stake in the rapidly growing biofuel industry, and we expect to be producing ethanol within just three years. By 2010, Everton will be one of the leading producers and suppliers in the United States.”

Everton is partnering with Kansas-based ICM to design and construct a 100 million gallon ethanol production facility in Concordia, Kansas starting in early 2007. Everton also plans to announce details regarding the location and development of a second facility in the near future.

Officials with California-based Cilion announced this week they have raised over $200 million in capital financing to build multiple ethanol plants.

Cilion was formed in June (see previous post) with a partnership between Western Milling and venture capital firm Khosla Ventures

According to a press release, Cilion will operate modular, standardized 55 million gallons per year ethanol plants using India-based Praj technology. Using a variety of innovations, these plants will be greener and less expensive than standard corn-to-ethanol plants, therefore substantially reducing the consumption of traditional energy sources in ethanol production.

Thursday is the big day for a new ethanol plant in Michigan.

US BioEnergy will celebrate the opening of Michigan’s third ethanol plant in Woodbury Thursday, Sept. 14. Mitch Irwin, director of the Michigan Department of Agriculture, will serve as master of ceremonies. Bob Dineen, president of the Renewable Fuels Association will speak along with company officials. US Bio Woodbury will use more than 16 million bushels of corn to produce 50 million gallons of ethanol annually

According to the US Bio Woodbury page on the US Bioenergy website, they have a live web cam to “check out plant construction progress live.” I tried it, but it didn’t work – even after downloading the recommended software from the site, which took about 25 minutes! So, I assume it will be there sometime – maybe after the groundbreaking. I mean, how much could there be to look at now?