Ethanol production plant reopens in Cloverdale
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Poet LLC, a biofuels producer headquartered in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, on Thursday marked the reopening of its ethanol production facility in Putnam County.
The company said it has invested $30 million in new technology and upgrades at the Cloverdale plant and plans to create 50 full-time jobs.
The facility, one of five that Poet operates in Indiana, idled production indefinitely in 2019. At the time, the company accused the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency of misusing the Small Refinery Exemption, which gives smaller oil refineries a waiver on fulfilling the federally mandated Renewable Fuel Standard, or RFS.
The exemption is for oil refineries that process fewer than 75,000 barrels of petroleum per day. Poet claimed the EPA was granting such waivers to refineries owned by large oil corporations such as ExxonMobil.
“Our industry invested billions of dollars based on the belief that oil [refiners] could not restrict access to the market and EPA would stand behind the intent of the Renewable Fuel Standard,” Poet founder and CEO Jeff Broin said in 2019. “Unfortunately, the oil industry is manipulating the EPA and is now using the RFS to destroy demand for biofuels, reducing the price of commodities and gutting rural economies in the process.”
However, Poet now says since that time, better federal management of the RFS and strong support for E15, a 15% bioethanol blend of fuel, at the state level have “played a significant role” in the decision to reopen the Cloverdale plant.
Cloverdale is located about 41 miles southwest of Indianapolis.
With the upgrades at the facility, Poet says its annual production rate is expected to increase from 80 million to 95 million gallons of bioethanol. The plant is also anticipated to generate demand for 34 million bushels of Indiana corn to make the biofuel annually.
“As we gather for the opening of POET – Cloverdale, we celebrate not only the future of Indiana biofuels, but also the enduring strength of our state’s agricultural roots,” Congressman Jim Baird, R-IN, said in a news release. “This facility represents ingenuity and collaboration and serves as a testament to the partnerships that uplift our rural communities and drive Indiana’s economic prosperity.”
Poet also operates bioprocessing plants in Alexandria, North Manchester, Portland, and Shelbyville, employing a total of 215 Hoosiers.