Southern Illinois may get $400M renewable diesel plant

In Illinois, the City of Newton, Ill., Jasper County, and St. Joseph Renewable Fuels, LLC announced plans to build a $400 million renewable diesel plant in Southern Illinois that envisions utilizing innovative technologies and a new healthcare protocol to test and certify a COVID-19 free workforce. The 40-acre site in Newton, Ill., is within a federally designated Opportunity Zone, and is believed to be one of the largest projects proposed under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 that was designed to revive economically distressed communities in the United States.

Plans for the proposed facility include showcasing proactive steps a small city with a population of 3,000 can take to solve a complex health crisis through a new app and testing initiative called ‘HealthCheckIn.’ The testing concept being introduced will help bring a critical facility into operation. This innovative approach ultimately could be scalable to a larger impact at county, state, and national levels, both domestically and worldwide. HealthCheckIn can help solve a larger need for mitigation solutions that will allow the country to re-open from the COVID-19 lockdown that affects virtually an entire workforce.