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Posted on  

May 30, 2001

Topics:

1) Williams Forms Agreement to Market Tri-State Ethanol

2) Incoming Senate Chair: U.S. Green Payments Certain

Williams Forms Agreement to Market Tri-State Ethanol

Williams Bio-Energy LLC, a subsidiary of Williams, announced today that it has entered into an agreement to market all fuel grade ethanol produced by Tri-State Ethanol Company, LLC, based in South Dakota. The Tri-State relationship marks Williams' sixth ethanol marketing agreement in the past five months. Financial terms of the Tri-State agreement, which went into effect April 25, were not disclosed.

Williams is the second-largest producer and marketer of ethanol in the United States. Williams produces 130 million gallons of ethanol per year through its wholly owned facility at Pekin, Ill., and 75 percent owned Aurora, Neb., facility. These marketing relationships, including Tri-State, produce an additional 75 million gallons per year. Williams markets approximately 315 million gallons of ethanol annually.

Ron Miller, vice president of Williams Bio-Energy LLC, said the company is extending its distribution system primarily because of the growing demand for ethanol. Large market opportunities for fuel ethanol are developing in California as methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) is being phased out of California Clean Burning Gasoline regulations by 2003. Additionally, MTBE in reformulated gasoline is being eliminated in New York and Connecticut by 2004.

``Williams meets this demand growth through expanding relationships to purchase and re-sell ethanol produced by third parties through the company's extensive distribution system,'' Miller said. ``We are pleased to do business with Tri-State and other producers including Quad County Corn Processors Cooperative [Galva, Iowa], Heartland Grain Fuels [Aberdeen and Huron, S.D.], Minnesota Energy [Buffalo Lake, Minn.] and Sunrise Energy [Blairstown, Iowa] to meet market needs.''

Incoming Senate Chair: U.S. Green Payments Certain

Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin (news - bio - voting record) said on Friday his impending appointment as chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee would help assure passage of his proposal to pay U.S. farmers up to $50,000 a year for making conservation a part of their operations.

Harkin would take the chairmanship as a consequence of Democrats assuming control of the Senate on June 5 at the earliest.

For the past couple of years, Harkin has given top priority to a plan to pay farmers up to $50,000 a year for practicing stewardship on hundreds of millions of acres of ``working lands.''

``This (becoming chairman) really does mean the conservation program that I've been pushing for a couple of years now will be enacted,'' Harkin said in remarks released by his office.

``It will be in the chairman's mark (the leading proposal to rewrite farm law). As you know, we've got good bipartisan support for it. So I think we're going to have a new day for conservation in America.''

Harkin also said he would use the chairmanship to promote renewable fuels such as ethanol.

``I have a dream that 32 million acres of (Conservation Reserve) land in this country could be used in a conserving manner to grow fast-growing biomass crops that could be burned in our power plant,'' Harkin said. ``As chairman of the Agriculture Committee, I intend to be very active in promoting renewable energy.''


 

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