Fueling a rural revival: Ethanol co-op supports farmer income while providing lift to rural community

摘要

It started as the dream of farmers and the managers of the local electric cooperative who were searching for a way to add value to corn and to help stabilize electric rates. The Chippewa Valley Ethanol plant outside Benson, Minn., has not only accomplished that, it has also been a sparkplug that ignited efforts to reverse the rural decline Benson seemed locked into for a time. "If you go back 15 years or so ago, Benson was facing a malaise like that of so many other rural towns with slowly decliningpopulations, loss of jobs and an eroding tax base," says ethanol plant manager Bill Lee, Lee first came to the town of 3,400 people about 130 miles west of Minneapolis in 1994, At that time, he was an engineer for the firm that built and originally operated the ethanol-plant (Delta T Corp.) He switched over and went to work for Chippewa Valley in 1996 when the co-op bought out Delta T's minority ownership position.