POET Adding its 5th Indiana Ethanol Plant in Shelby County
Construction on a new biofuel facility in Shelby County is underway. POET is building its fifth plant in Indiana. POET Commercial Development Manager Buck Yerdon says this is a win-win-win for POET, Shelby County and surrounding area farmers, and Shelby County on the whole.
“It’s good for POET, obviously, because it expands our capacity and our ability to meet the new E15 demand. And thanks to the president’s recent directives to lift the unnecessary restrictions on the use of E15, we see this as having real potential to add new demand for about 2 billion bushels of corn per year.”
Yerdon says it’s a win for local farmers because right now they’re driving out of county or even down to the river to sell their corn.
“That’s truck miles, that’s truck hours. It just siphons even more money out of their pockets at a time when they’re hurting enough as it is. It’s also going to add about 10 cents per bushel to the local corn basis.”
Yerdon said the facility will bring 45 new full-time jobs to the area. These will be technical, engineering, and management jobs, not just base level positions. He also said POET gives their general managers flexibility and a budget to give back to the community, something very important to the POET culture.
“On average, a POET plant donates $50-$60k per year to community initiatives. Many of our GM’s sit on the chamber of commerce, they sit on different boards, they host different types of charitable events at the plant as well. In fact, in Shelby County, we’ve already began participating with the Chamber and the local FFA.”
POET plans to have the new facility operational in the first quarter of 2020.