Alternative Energy: Ethanol (#107)

Original Air Date: Monday, October 29, 2007

If you were to talk with small town implement dealers or bankers or nearly anyone on main street Iowa, you’d generally find some pretty happy folks.

Much of that joy is attributable to ethanol. Ethanol has been a boon to Iowa. Ten percent of every fuel dollar stays in the state, benefiting the Iowa economy. Demand for the substance has pushed corn prices higher, also benefiting the state’s economy.

The farmer- visionaries, who for so long preached in the wilderness and stubbornly invested their own money to build the processing plants, were just beginning to see their ideas bear fruit.
But in recent months, just as the disciples of ethanol thought they were about to cross into the economic Promised Land, the ethanol economy began to stumble. Still, they insist the fundamentals for prosperity remain in place. From their view, if the state is to be any thing other than a provider of raw commodities, it would seem ethanol must succeed.