$91 Million Taxpayer Dollars to Fund Louisiana Biofuel Plant

- Cole Avery, Octo­ber 3, 2014, The Times-Picayune

Tom Vil­sack, the sec­re­tary of the U.S. Depart­ment of Agri­cul­ture, announced a $91 mil­lion loan guar­an­tee from the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment to help build a bio­mass fuel plant in Louisiana.

Vil­sack trav­eled to Baton Rouge on Fri­day to make the announce­ment. He said the plant could have a “pro­found impact” on agri­cul­ture in America.

The plant is being built by Cool Ener­gy in Alexan­dria. It under con­struc­tion and is expect­ed to be com­plete in 2015 with pro­duc­tion to begin in 2016. The plant will pro­duce an expect­ed 150–175 direct or indi­rect jobs.

“This is going to pro­vide a new mar­ket oppor­tu­ni­ty for pine chips and oth­er renew­able for­est mate­r­i­al, which will help the forestry indus­try in the state,” Vil­sack said. “This biochar soil nutri­ent they’re able to pro­duce is real­ly remark­able oppor­tu­ni­ty for us not only to learn from your expe­ri­ence but to take this and extend the notion of biochar.”

The 10,000 gal­lon plant will use bio­mass, such as wood chips and corn husks, to make advanced fuels, gas and jet fuels, which Vil­sack said could reduce Amer­i­ca’s imports from polit­i­cal­ly volatile parts of the world.

The result of that process, the biochar, can then be used for soil sup­ple­ments and feed additives.

Louisiana Agri­cul­ture Com­mis­sion­er Mike Strain said Louisiana is the ide­al state to cap­i­tal­ize on the bio­fu­el indus­try because of the state’s resources, ties to the oil and gas indus­try and access to rail and ports to ship products.

“When com­pa­nies look for X marks the spot, it makes sense to have it here,” Strain said. “We’re a resource rich state, and the world­wide econ­o­my of the next 50 years is pri­mar­i­ly depen­dent on the avail­abil­i­ty of resources.”

Cool Plant CEO Howard Janzen said the goal is to build sev­er­al small plants like the future Alexan­dria plant in oth­er parts of the state in the future.

Rur­al Louisiana is made up of more than 28,000 cars across 7.9 mil­lion acres.Vilsack said the loan is fund­ed by the Biore­fin­ery Assis­tance Program. 

The USDA has invest­ed $22 bil­lion in Louisiana from fis­cal years 2009–2013. Rur­al Louisiana is made up of more than 28,000 cars across 7.9 mil­lion acres.

The farm indus­try is one of the largest indus­tries in the nation, account­ing for one out of every 12 jobs.