The mayor of a northwest Iowa city that’s home to an ethanol plant is joining the lobbying effort against an EPA proposal that effectively would reduce the amount of U.S. ethanol produced in 2014.
Myrna Heddinger is mayor of Emmetsburg, where a new plant is being built that will use the entire corn stalk to make ethanol, not just the corn kernels.
“We were so very excited to be the ones behind or within this pioneering of this ethanol plant,” Heddinger said yesterday. “We have been so excited with its growth and what it has given to our community.”
The mayor spoke during a conference call arranged by a coalition of groups that argue ethanol is “under siege from big oil,” and she touted the benefits of the new ethanol plant to farmers in the area.
“It lets them utilize every aspect of the corn or crops that they grow,” Heddinger said. “…It’ll be within America and it will not go to foreign soil which makes it a better tool for economic growth within America.”
She said 300 people are working to build the new cellulosic ethanol plant in Emmetsburg.