POET points fingers over slow investment

In Iowa, POET puts the blame for slower-than-expected investment in cellulosic ethanol on the uncertain policy framework supporting their demand. Financing negotiations are slow going with not just the DOE but also private lenders because of delays and controversy over E15 and blender pumps as well as the possible loss of the 45-cent-per-gallon tax deduction. POET expected its Project Liberty plant in Emmetsburg to be under construction by now but so far it has only received $20 million from the Iowa Department of Economic Development and the Iowa Power Fund.
“When I talk to public, I tell them to keep in mind that it took us 30 years to go from zero gallons of corn ethanol to 13 billion gallons of production with a technology that has been known for a millennium,” said Robert Brown, who directs Iowa State University’s biofuel research, referring to the moonshine technology used by corn ethanol. “Now, with cellulose, we’re going from zero gallons to comparable production in 15 years, or half the time,” Brown said. “And we’re doing it with a technology that is still under development.”

More on the story.