Fueling the future

A group of officials from organizations along state, local and federal elected officials and representatives of Prairie Pride, Inc., took part in a ceremonial groundbreaking at the site of the coming soybean/biodiesel processing plant, Saturday morning. The plant will be located about one mile north of U.S. 54 Highway on Highway T about halfway between Nevada and Fort Scott.

By Steve Moyer

Herald-Tribune

In the middle of a closely-mowed field of 210 acres a white tent stood in the sun, chairs for more than 200 people set up in the slight shade it offered. After a year and a half of preparation, it was finally time for Prairie Pride to break ground on their new soybean oil extraction biodiesel facility, located about one mile north of U.S. Highway 54 on Highway T.

Congressman Ike Skelton, representatives from Senators Jim Talent and Christopher Bond, Missouri State Representative Barney Fisher and the Vernon County commissioners all took part in welcoming the new facility to Vernon County.

Marvin Oerke, chairman of Prairie Pride, presided over the ceremony and told the audience the real reason the facility can become a reality is the shareholders.

"The real reason we're here is the shareholders," Oerke said.

"There are 1,060 shareholders, who knew that a year and a half ago when we started we'd end up ready to start on this $72 million plant, 100 percent owned by producers."

Skelton spoke of the difficulty, but necessity, of the work being done, and joked about politicians taking credit for it. He received a standing ovation after his speech.

"You're going to hear from a lot of politicians today and they're all going to say 'I did this,'" he joked, but went on to say, "It's important that this country become energy independent, it's imperative that this country become energy independent. The Middle East is a cauldron, Russia is becoming a bigger supplier. They can hold us hostage. We need to wean ourselves off of foreign oil. America has done many difficult things, and this is a difficult thing, but we can do it."

Fisher said the groundbreaking is an important milestone and one that helps America toward energy independence.

"It would be nice to be able to say to OPEC, keep your oil, we don't need it," Fisher said.

Vernon County Presiding Commissioner David Darnold said that he was uncertain about the project when he first heard about it.

"When Marvin first came in and talked about this, I didn't know what to think," Darnold said. "When he walked out the door I thought to myself, the biggest thing I can remember happening here is 3M and that was something like $20 million; and here he is talking about getting a bunch of farmers together for a $40 million project. I've got grandkids, and one of the words they use a lot is 'awesome.' That's what this is, awesome."

The plant, with shareholders from throughout the region, in Missouri and Kansas, will produce 30 million gallons of biodiesel a year from 21 million bushels of soybeans as well as millions of pounds of soybean meal using a solvent extraction system.