South Dakota Searchlight has an article tonight confirming that the sustainable jet fuel project that was destined for Lake Preston is now moving to North Dakota.
They’ll hold onto the land, for an unspecified future date, but at the end of the day, South Dakota managed to blow up our billion dollar value added agriculture project:
Colorado-based Gevo had obtained a $1.46 billion loan through the U.S. Department of Energy to build a jet fuel plant at Lake Preston, South Dakota. Company officials told the North Dakota Monitor on Thursday that it instead will push ahead with making jet fuel at the Richardton, North Dakota, ethanol plant it bought last year. Gevo is working with the Department of Energy to transfer the loan to expand the North Dakota site.
and..
Gevo plans to expand the North Dakota ethanol plant, which turns corn into fuel. It would convert the ethanol into higher-value aviation fuel in a process it calls alcohol to jet. Carbon capture is a key part of making sustainable aviation fuel.
and..
But the Gevo officials said the demand for sustainable aviation fuel meant the company could not wait for the Summit pipeline. Summit had hoped to be operating in 2024 but has yet to start construction as it tries to secure all the permits it needs.
“We can’t sit around for that,” Gruber said. “We’ve got a mission here.”
Jackley, Radke, Eschenbaum, and the Sierra Club celebrate another blow to SD agriculture
They are wrapped in the flag of Dakota Rural Action. DRA got their start as a grass roots populist movement in the 1980’s, stopping the Cen Dak water project that would have irrigated most of eastern South Dakota resulting in great benefits for the state and agriculture. Sounds very familiar.
And farmers are instead looking for a taxpayer handout. Sickening.
Need to smack the “farmers” that opposed their own future.
SD Open For Business?
Not so much thanks to Rhoden-VanHuisen
Thank the Rhoden admin. zero leadership.
Find a new line you have been proven wrong with the passing of the prison.
Laughable take Ian. Tony convinced Larry to sign the bill killing the pipeline in South Dakota because it was “smart” politically and the pipeline could still be built by reengaging with landowners. Neither nuggets of advice was true but the decision is a window into the depth and breadth of the current administration.
Our neighboring states and farmers will see the benefits of our stupidity sold as smart thinking.
Cowards. They torpedoed what Noem worked to bring in.
It’s true. Our family in in ND, and we are eating your lunch, which Kristi had dang near set on the table for you folks. We don’t rival with you. As Dakotans, we all benefit from strength together. But your new leaders screwed the pooch on this one. Losing an ethanol fuel plant?!!? Uffda.
2/3rds of the corn grown in South Dakota is processed through ethanol plants, and corn is selling for just over $3.00 a bushel. Driving a huge corn buyer like this to another state will only make things worse. We need a major shake-up in the 2026 legislative elections.
Expect it
Yes! Expect it!
FAFO
Good job, Larry. You chased good jobs and property tax base out of the state.
Larry let down agriculture signing an unconstitutional bill.
However the real problem are the legislators that push this crap.
So this article says this:
“Gruber said the jet fuel production in North Dakota would be 30 million gallons a year, half of what was planned for South Dakota. But he said the 500 acres at Richardton could allow for expansion. He said the jet fuel plant would cost about $500 million. Gruber noted that is substantially less than $2.6 billion it planned to spend on the South Dakota site.”
So it was going to cost $2.6 billion to build from scratch in Lake Preston SD, but only $500 million to add onto Gevo’s existing ethanol plant in ND. The capacity in ND is only half, but presumably for another $500 million (or less) they can double it.
Given that, can this have really been about the pipeline? It seems like they saved more than $1 billion by going to their existing North Dakota plant.
Yes, it was about the pipeline. They can sequester the carbon in ND and cannot sequester it in Lake Preston without a pipeline. HB 1052 killed this project and any others like it in SD.
Yeah it was. Since they’re able to sequester in ND, they’ll be able to argue that it’s a less carbon-intensive product and be able to sell to markets that are demanding more “green” fuel alternatives.
It was all about the pipeline. GEVO will have to spend a lot more on acquiring corn than they will save on construction. Why? Because ND doesn’t grow as much corn as SD.
Maybe the tiny minority of SD landowners & rabblerousers who screwed this up should indemnify South Dakota for this loss???
How dare landowners expect to have say over how their private property is utilized.
Should we tear down all electric lines above and below ground and everyone relies on a generator at their homes and businesses? Those lines go over a lot of private property, after all. The electricity is used by private individuals and businesses, and some of the companies selling it are private. Boondoggle!
Then they better also not bitch about why the small towns near them are dying.
What about the 70 plus percent of landowners directly impacted by the pipeline that signed up and wanted it? What about their property rights?
Not sure you understand how property rights work. They had full rights to sign over use of their land, they just dont have the right to tell others what an acceptable price for their land use and/or safety of their family is worth. GEVO still could’ve built here if they wanted, they were just counting on Noem and the others who fought against our property rights to force landowners to comply – very corporatacracy-esque, if you ask me. GEVO could have easily come in and offered homeowners and landowners enough money to either be willing to live their with the risk or be willing to sell their house and move. This would’ve cut into their profits though, so instead they were hoping to use eminent domain and offer homeowners peanuts.
It’s nit that Sad is bad for business like GEVO is trying to say, we’re just forcing them to conduct business fairly, and GEVO along with people like you that dont support property rights for citizens tend to not like that.
Once again The Great State of South Dakota has projected their stupidity to the rest of the country.
We give Iowa the Gambling Casino revenue from
our largest city to Grand Falls casino just 1 mile over the S. D. /Iowa border.
Brilliant move # 1.
We legalize medical cannabis but reject Recreational so that Minnesota will take that revenue also when they open their dispensaries later this year.
Legal weed 15 miles from 250,000 South Dakotans.
Not to mention, the people of South Dakota legalized it , but The hag, Noem used her circus flea Kristina Klinger , her S. D. Supreme Court appointee to overturn it with a B. S. single subject rule that was ignored in the legislature previously.
That was Brilliant move #2.
And now N. Dakota will benefit with Aviation fuel
that should have been ours.
That is Brilliant move #3.
Strike 3. You’re out.
So class, let’s review…..
How do we spell South Dakota?
MISSISSIPPI. Class dismissed.
GEVO will Make Billions once they Get Started. Benefits Farmers, State and Local Tax, Lots of Families and Delta will Love them Some GEVO !! GEVO stock should Boom !
I can’t think of a vile enough word to describe Eschenbama and the cartel now in charge.
Is there something unique at the ND ethanol plant? Do they already have a CO2 pipeline hooked up to that plant? If not, they could have done it in SD!!