LEIPSIC, Ohio -- The first ethanol production plant is opening in Ohio. Its right here in northwest Ohio in the tiny Putnam County town of Leipsic.
News 11's Dick Berry reported live at the News Eleven Wood County bureau at Levis Commons.
The plant opening was such a big deal in Leipsic, all the school kids were given the day off. Tours of the new ethanol plant were given and everyone who showed up got a free lunch.
The plant doesn't go on-line until next Tuesday, but ethanol production is expected to replace millions of barrels of imported oil.
Poet Biorefining has come to Leipsic. The South Dakota based company will buy 22 million bushels of corn from area farmers annually to produce 65 million gallons of ethanol.
Corn grower Roger Raden told News 11, "It's another place to sell grain. It's close. I'm about eight miles from here."
Representative Bob Latta was there. He asked the audience, "Would everybody in this audience who grows corn please stand?"
Governor Ted Strickland honored corn growers and welcomed the company to Ohio.
Speaker after speaker hammers home the same point about the advantages of ethanol.
Roger Crossgrove of the Ohio Farmers Union said, "By having ethanol production, it's going to help us reduce that dependence we have on Middle East oil, which we can be held hostage to."
Whether it's in Ohio or elsewhere, all corn growers stand to benefit by jumping on the ethanol bandwagon. Poet Biorefining is the largest producer of biofuels in the world. Leipsic is it's 22nd plant.
Ethanol production gives corn growers another market to tap into.
Crossgrove of the farmers union said, "There's no doubt corn prices have gone up significantly. Unfortunately, so have the input prices. So we have to maintain this market if we're going to survive as farmers." Poet biofueling plans to help that survival rate for Ohio farmers.
Two more ethanol plants are planned--one in Fostoria and the other in Marion--a $400 million agricultural investment, which is the biggest ever in Ohio.
