The quest by a group of farmers to build a 55-million-gallon ethanol plant near Fergus Falls, Minn., appears to have succeeded.
Otter Tail Ag Enterprises is expected to announce today that it will build the plant. Officials declined to comment on the specifics of the announcement, but signs point to the ethanol plant.
"It'll be the largest single investment in Otter Tail County history," Harold Stanislawski, economic development director for Fergus Falls, said Tuesday.
Jerry Larson, a farmer from Elbow Lake, Minn., and president of Otter Tail Ag Enterprises, said securities laws barred him from saying anything until the news conference.
"I really can't say much today," he said.
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Project supporters, however, have asked Otter Tail County officials to make road improvements on a county highway in an industrial area near Fergus Falls.
Last fall, Larson announced that backers had raised $2.4 million in seed money for the plant, which would convert 18 million bushels of corn annually into ethanol, a gasoline additive.
Average new plant costs in the ethanol industry are in the range of $50 million, according to the Agricultural Utilization Research Institute.
Organizers also have said the plant would produce 145,000 tons of low-cost, high-protein livestock feed.
About one-sixth of Minnesota's corn crop is made into ethanol. The Otter Tail Ag Enterprises plant would be the state's 17th ethanol plant, Stanislawski said.
Readers can reach Forum reporter Patrick Springer at (701) 241-5522
