GoodFuels

POET in Motion

Apparently POET is too busy building and opening ethanol plants to read the headlines and know that the financial world as we know it is coming to an end.

The world’s biggest ethanol producer just keeps getting bigger, opening a new plant today in Fostoria, Ohio and announcing another plant opening in the same state at the end of October.

In fact, POET may be looking to get even bigger through acquisitions, according to this story from the Ottawa Citizen, which quotes CEO Jeff Broin saying that the financial crunch has made it the best time “in at least five years” to do so.

Obviously, he has not heard that the financial crisis “may delay biofuels development,” as Reuters reported this week from an interview with the CEO of BlueFire Ethanol. The fear is that the crisis will stifle cellulosic ethanol development because it has “raised project finance costs and made ambitious targets to replace fossil fuels with renewable energy sources look less achievable.” Just last month, POET announced they would complete construction on a $4 million pilot-scale cellulosic ethanol production facility by the end of this year and Jeff Broin said he is “more confident about the future of cellulosic ethanol than ever before.”

Some ethanol producers have been affected by bad financial decisions lately, no question. But, with corn prices heading back down (futures dropped below $5 today), those who are the most fiscally responsible will continue to turn a profit and keep moving forward. I’m no economist, but it seems that one of the best solutions to our financial problems is to invest even more into domestic, renewable sources of energy that produce jobs and keep more American dollars here at home rather than sending them overseas.