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Ethanol
production: good for the community and the farmers?
The
Hidden issues.
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By Jim
Youngquist
[MARCH 12, 2005] I went to that
ethanol awareness meeting on Monday night dead set against the plant
locating just down the road from our house. My reasons for
being against it were that I feared that my property values would be
affected, and when the wind blew out of the southwest, we would be
enveloped in a breath-stealing stench in both my house and my
yard. |
After the meeting
my fears about odors coming from the plant were practically
eliminated. Brian Wrage from Illini Bio-Energy assured us that this
plant wouldn't produce the Staley's-like smells I feared. The
testimony of people who have visited similar ethanol plants confirms
that Brian Wrage was telling the truth about this odor
issue.
And, if I'm being realistic about the property value
issue, my property values would probably begin to suffer in the long
run if I'm living in a county where the citizenry constantly opposes
and chases away every bit of economic development that requires any
kind of sacrifice. In the long run, this will only be a jobless,
businessless bedroom community with a Wal-Mart and a few fast-food
places. Businesses and industry that pay a living wage are important
to this community.
There were some people at that meeting on
Monday night who have a legitimate concern with the proposed
location of the ethanol plant. They will look out their front
windows and see the distillation towers filling their sight. The
railroad spur for the plant will be right in their backyards. If
there is an environmental problem caused by the plant, it will
immediately affect their lives. And, it is very likely that their
property values will decline severely because no one will want to
purchase their homes, should they ever decide to sell. I have a
great deal of sympathy for those people. Their concerns should be
part of every negotiation regarding the plant.
The greatest
fears expressed by the crowd at the meeting Monday night centered on
hidden environmental issues. Would the plant silently poison the
environment over time? Would the VOM toxins cause cancer rates to
soar in the area? Would this coal-fired plant put soot into the air?
Would the plant poison the ground water? What if the product leaked?
These were all good questions!
Personally, though I heard Brian
Wrage's answers and thought they were truth, I had a hard time
trusting answers from anyone in the chemical industry because so
much untruth and hidden problems have happened in this industry
across the world.
So far, though, this short-lived ethanol
industry seems to have a good environmental track record.
My remaining concerns center around some of the other hidden
issues regarding this ethanol plant. These concerns are about the
real economic cost to the county.
The location of this plant
requires the Logan County citizenry to heavily subsidize the
operation of this plant through property and sales tax abatement.
The current proposal is for 10 years of property tax abatement to
the farmland tax level. The figures thrown around at that meeting
indicated that the plant will likely pay some $350,000 a year in
property taxes. It is roughly estimated that the infrastructure
costs for roads will be about $6 million over that 10-year time
period. The proposal also calls for the complete abatement of the
county's portion of sales taxes for operating supplies purchased in
the county over the next 10 years. My calculator tells me that
leaves the taxpayers of Logan County with the remaining cost of some
$2.5 million over 10 years.
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top of second column in this article] |
I received a number of responses this week to my article
Tuesday about the ethanol meeting. Some of them were from ethanol
industry insiders. They told the story of ethanol plant startups
across the country that offered the area farmers an independent
market for their grain. The farmers joined these co-ops, signed
contracts for the sale of their corn and invested heavily in them,
thinking this would help their family farms survive. Local investors
for these plants provided only about one-third of the moneys needed
for construction and operations to begin. These ethanol co-ops then
solicited outside investments in order to complete their projects
and found eager LLCs (limited liability companies) who filled their
coffers and allowed the plants to be built and operations to
start.
These LLCs don't have to disclose who's behind the
money. It has turned out across the country that these shadowy LLCs
are owned by the same mega-grain giants that dominate agribusiness
across the country, and across the world. These giants manipulate
grain prices for their own profit and repress and crush the
independent farmer with their power by keeping grain prices too low.
Having a 60 percent stake in the local ethanol co-op allows them to
control the prices paid for the crops of independent farmers who had
hoped for and been promised better prices for their product.
So, my remaining question is: Who will ultimately own
and control the county's future? Will the promise made to local
farmers to have a legitimate, new market to sell their corn to,
untainted by the tyranny of the mega-agribusiness giants who
currently repress grain prices for their own profits, be upheld? Or
will Logan County be held even tighter in the clutches of the
"super-markup to the world?"
[Jim
Youngquist]
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Life Sentence, No Parole
If we tried to
invent the cruelest punishment for dogs, we probably couldn't
come up with anything worse than "solitary confinement" on a
chain or in a kennel.
Dogs are pack
animals who crave the companionship of others. Scratches
behind the ears, games of fetch, or even just walks around the
block mean the world to them. Curling up at your feet
while you watch TV is their idea of heaven.
Many dogs left to
fend for themselves at the end of a chain fall prey to attacks
by other animals or cruel people, and many others are injured
or hanged or choke as a result of getting entangled or caught
in their tether.
If you have a
backyard dog, please, bring him or her inside. They
don't want much--just you.
A public
service announcement from Lincoln Daily News and  helpinganimals.com | |
