(July 1, 2006)—An investor group and the Central Texas Ag Development Board, which represents producers in a 10-county area, announced Friday they have agreed to build an ethanol fuel plant in Central Texas the raw material for which will be supplied by Blackland producers.

The Blackland Ethanol Corporation will carry out the venture.

The proposed plant would have an initial capacity of 50 million gallons annually and capacity could be expanded to as much as 100 million gallons, consuming as much as 20 million bushels of corn or milo a year.

The plant would cost between $60 million and $80 million to build and would employ as many as 40 people.

“CTAD has worked for several years to get to this point with an ethanol plant,” said Kit Worley, President of CTAD.

“Bringing in such a large consumer of our local supply will benefit the farmers, the rural communities in which they live, and the overall economy of Central Texas,” he said.

“While many areas of the state are corn deficient, the area that runs from Brazos County in the east to McLennan County in the North and Travis County in the south produces much of the state’s corn product. Milo has similar starch characteristics as corn, and will also grow well in this area,” he said.

“With the support of CTAD, we believe that Central Texas is ideally situated for the development of a fuel ethanol plant,” “CTAD represents many of the producers who will supply corn or milo to the new plant.”

“Ethanol is a key component of this country’s plan to reduce its dependence on fossil fuels,” said Michael T. Norman, spokesperson for the plant development group.

“With new technologies being developed, and federal and state incentives for ethanol production, it is now time to bring ethanol production to this part of Texas. Because of the location of the USDA/Texas A&M Blackland Research Center here and the City of Temple’s focus on developing its bioscience and agri-bioscience industry, we think that Temple is a strong location for the plant site,” he said.

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