Yesterday a big item in the news was the announcement that the U.S. government has offered a $235 million federal loan guarantee for construction of a plant in Boardman that would turn poplar trees and agricultural waste into ethanol. The financing announced Thursday is for ZeaChem Inc., which plans to produce 25 million gallons of the fuel a year.
This morning we talked with Agriculture Under Secretary Dallas Tonsager who made the announcement at Boardman:
In addition to construction jobs, there will be some with lasting value:
And Tonager said this is just the beginning:
