DEP Issues Permits for Proposed Schuylkill County Ethanol Distribution, Storage Facility

WILKES-BARRE – The Department of Environmental Protection announced today it has issued air quality and storage tank permits to Green Renewable Energy, Ethanol & Nutrition Holding LLC in Porter and Frailey townships, Schuylkill County.

DEP issued an air quality plan approval to Green Renewable Energy for the distribution and storage portions of the proposed facility, and permits for four, 500,000-gallon and two, 3-million-gallon storage tanks. The company has not yet submitted its air quality plan approval applications for the ethanol-manufacturing portion of the facility.

“Green Renewable Energy has indicated that it plans to produce 100 million gallons of ethanol per year and these permits are the initial steps in what could be one of the largest ethanol plants in the Northeast,” said Northeast Regional Director Michael D. Bedrin. “The department held a public hearing on the initial air quality applications Feb. 8 and we will schedule another public hearing once we receive and begin review of the manufacturing permit application.”

The company has stated that the plant should begin turning out its own product by September 2008. The plant is expected to turn 40 million bushels of corn into 100 million gallons of ethanol each year. The 50-acre plant would be located next to the Westwood Energy waste coal-fired cogeneration plant, which will provide steam for the ethanol plant.

The plant would be one of the first ethanol plants in Pennsylvania and is expected to help the commonwealth meet its goals of energy independence based on clean-burning, renewable fuels from homegrown sources.

In February, Gov. Edward G. Rendell proposed his Energy Independence Strategy to invest $850 million to cut consumer energy costs by $10 billion over the next decade, stabilize electricity rates for businesses, significantly expand Pennsylvania’s alternative fuel and clean energy industries and reduce dependence on foreign oil.

Governor Rendell’s energy strategy includes the PennSecurity Fuels Initiative that mandates the use of renewable fuels and promotes the production of such fuels in Pennsylvania, increasing opportunities for businesses and cutting dependence on foreign oil.

By 2017, PennSecurity will replace approximately 1 billion gallons of petroleum-based transportation fuel used in the commonwealth annually with clean-burning renewable fuels.

To reach that goal, Pennsylvania will need to use 398 million gallons of biodiesel and 593 million gallons of ethanol, which will mean every gallon of gasoline sold in Pennsylvania will contain 10 percent ethanol and every gallon of diesel fuel will contain up to 20 percent biodiesel.

Pennsylvania is already a national leader in the production of biodiesel, and several ethanol plants — including the Green Renewable Energy plant — are proposed to be built in the commonwealth over the next three years, representing more than 340 million gallons a year of ethanol production.