Canadian Prairies to get three new ethanol plants
Date: 14-Oct-02
Country: CANADA
The first C$55-million plant is scheduled to open in the spring of 2004 in Belle Plaine, Saskatchewan, near the provincial capital of Regina. It will use 218,000 tonnes of wheat per year.
"For decades, Saskatchewan people have shared a dream that one day our agricultural products will no longer have to be shipped out of the province to be processed," Calvert said in a release.
Ethanol is a high-octane, water-free alcohol fuel made from converted plant starches seen to reduce carbon monoxide emissions.
"You have the raw materials and sit at the crossroads of the North American marketplace," said Broe official Dwight Johnson in a release. "Together we are going to build a world-class industry."
Johnson is president of Omnitrax, a short-line railway owned by Broe that operates in Western Canada.
Broe will be the majority owner of each plant, with a 60 percent share in the first plant. The Crown Investments Corp. of Saskatchewan will own 40 percent of the first plant. Community groups will also invest in the projects.
Announcements on the other two plants are expected early in the new year, Johnson said. They are planned for the Tisdale and Melville-Yorkton regions of the province.
The provincial government passed new ethanol laws in July, providing grants to offset fuel taxes on ethanol produced and used in Saskatchewan.
When the province produces enough ethanol, and as ethanol prices fall, the government will make it mandatory to use ethanol-blended gasoline.
The Manitoba government is considering a similar law.
