Santa Rosa To Take Another Look At $30 Million Biofuel Plant For Jay

August 8, 2010

The Santa Rosa County Commission will take another look Monday at a $30 million biofuel plant that an Orlando company wants to build near Jay after issuing revenue bonds using the county’s name.

The Integrated Energy Partners (IEP), Inc. facility near Jay would use agricultural products to create biodiesel fuel, kerosene, propane and electricity. The plant would provide about 30 jobs and eventually employee about 50 people in five years.

Since the county’s name would be used to obtain financing for the company, Commissioner Chairman Gordon Goodwin told a company official at a July meeting that he wanted more information before making a decision about a project using the county’s name.

According to documents from IEP that the commission will consider Monday, Santa Rosa County will not be liable for the Industrial Development Bond, either for repayment, default or legal costs. The company said it is in negotiations with three companies to purchase the bonds. The company has declined to identify the companies or release financial projections.

According to documentation provided by Integrated Energy Partners, the company would use seeds from the Camelina plant in the winter and other traditional year-round crops, including cotton seed, to produce their biofuels. In addition, municipal and other waste products would be used as fuel.

The company said it has secured purchase agreements with farmers involving about 10,000 acres in the Florida Panhandle and has an “in principle” agreement with a municipality for their waste.

The company is not dependent on local farmers; instead, “IEP can exist in any industrial park that has adequate and infrastructure,” according to the company. IEP emphasizes the word “offering” in their presentation to the commission about a potential relationship with local farmers by offering a market for their production under a U.S Department of Agriculture.

According to documentation presented to the commission, “…it is by no means necessary for IEP to buy its feedstock(s) here in a Santa Rosa Count…All of the feedstock(s) are readily available on the open market.”

The company also said that there will not be any permitting problems in locating the plant in Jay because they will not need an air discharge, wastewater discharge or wastewater treatment system permit from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.

At startup, the IEP plans to have a 5-12 megawatt electricity generation capacity. They would be able to produce, according to documents provided to the commission, a yearly output of 3 million gallons of biodiesel, 9 million gallons of kerosene, 353 thousand gallons of cellulosic alcohol, 437 thousand gallons of propane and 47.8 MWH of electricity.

IEP states in documents presented to the Santa Rosa commission that federal law stipulates that a local utility must purchase electricity offered by an independent power producer. The company states that a local utility is “ready to purchase all of our power production”. IEP is also in negotiations to sell their liquid fuel to wholesalers.

Comments

7 Responses to “Santa Rosa To Take Another Look At $30 Million Biofuel Plant For Jay”

  1. oh poo on August 10th, 2010 3:30 pm

    options

    Big thumbs up to you….

  2. Options on August 9th, 2010 1:10 pm

    these are processed that do not generate toxic waste; instead these processes use bio-degradable materials including municipal and other waste materials.

    If it is TOXIC WASTE you are concerned about then support bio-fuels and do not allow companies like BP to drill near Florida coasts.

  3. Larry Larson on August 9th, 2010 12:36 pm

    biofuels would be good ,but TOXIC WASTE is not! We don’t need something else to ruin Our beautiful Counties

  4. nativefloridian on August 9th, 2010 7:19 am

    anydaynow:

    What toxic waste? this is all bio degradable materials.. DEP and NWFL Water Management District is involved in vetting them.. Lets see if they even get the Venture Capital needed(which is what they are looking for).
    Jeff Ates who is the local businessman behind this, has recently partnered with the Orlando company.. this is why its not being built in the “City of Disney”
    This guy is at just about every Jay Council meeting, so if you really want to learn about it, maybe you should come to one and ask him all these questions. I know our Town leaders are..

  5. anydaynow on August 8th, 2010 8:26 pm

    There is no mention of where they plan to dump their significant amount of toxic waste.

    I wonder why they aren’t planning to build their ground water polluting plant near the City of Disney.

    Santa Rosa citizens should require that county officials, and their agents and assigns, be barred from investing in this company, what with the existing corruption and such.

  6. CONCERNED CITIZEN on August 8th, 2010 6:41 pm

    ANYTHING that would cut our dependance on non-renewable fossil products would be welcome.

  7. john Booth on August 8th, 2010 3:37 pm

    Biofuels have got to start being used so santa rosa needs to step up to the plate and make the first move.

Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under News