Rising energy prices are firing up the search for alternative fuels. A Sioux City dealer sells stoves made in Nebraska that’ll burn wood pellets or ears of corn. Regional salesman Rob Stuhr says he can’t keep up with all the orders. He calls the demand for alternative fuels “drastic,” and beyond anything dealers could have imagined. He says the network’s sold out of stoves beyond the spring of 2006. Stuhr says the stove can heat a home for hundreds of dollars less than traditional fuels. He says the company, Even-Temp Incorporated of Waco, Nebraska, anticipated the demand, and already added staff and lengthened shifts earlier this year. Despite the run on the stoves, a manager at Bomgaars says that retail chain, which has general stores in more than fifteen Iowa towns, expects to have them in stock this fall.
