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by Natalie Walston

In 2004 a power company announced it would spend nearly $50 million to build an ethanol plant in Ohio in Coshocton County. Ohio is the only Midwest state without a facility to turn corn into the gasoline additive.

It’s been more than a year since Nordic Biofuels filed for installation permits in Coshocton, but construction still hasn’t started on the plant that could produce 50 million gallons of ethanol.

It’s the same story for several other potential ethanol plants planned for other areas of the state, even though Ohio is the nation’s seventh leading producer of corn.

Most point to the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) strict permitting processes for air and water quality as the reason why ethanol plants are not being built.

State Rep. Jim Aslanides, R-Coshocton, along with State Rep. Steve Reinhard, R-Bucyrus, are working together to draft a renewable fuels bill that would make it possible for power companies to get permission to build the plant long before water and air permits – which take years to be approved – are granted. This means the company would be able to build parts of the plant not related to emissions.

The Ohio Farm Bureau Federation (OFBF) is also assisting in drafting this legislation.

"It takes an enormous amount of permits, and we’re competing with facilities in other states," Aslanides said.

He pointed out that the companies planning to build ethanol plants are sophisticated, large companies that know what to do to get approval for air and water permits; therefore, beginning construction on parts of the plants before such permits are granted would not be a waste of time.

"They know what needs to be done," Aslanides said. "It could take a year and a half for all permits to be approved, and that’s just not acceptable."

The renewable fuels bill will also include provisions that make it easier for farms to sell power back to the electric grid.

"We want to work with utilities, service providers and local communities to have interconnection procedures statewide," said Dale Arnold, OFBF’s director of energy services.

Many farms can generate power on site. Some use traditional generators fueled by natural gas, diesel, propane or gasoline.

"Others are investing in wind, solar, biomass and fuel cell technologies. Many want the opportunity to provide power back into the distribution system," Arnold said.

Arnold explained that net metering, smart metering and the sale of so-called standby power all involve interconnection on a grid.

"In theory, Ohio has interconnection procedures in place, but some farmers have spent tens of thousands of dollars to have interconnection issues addressed," Arnold said, adding that farmers need a consumer friendly interconnection standard.

Aslanides said "it shouldn’t be cost-prohibitive to put power on the grid."

The lawmaker explained that under the bill, smaller operations producing less power would be able to connect to the grid for their own use on their farm. But larger operations that can’t use all of the power they produce would be able to sell that power on the grid.

"There’s a lot of electricity used at milking parlors," he said, "and that can get expensive."

Arnold said the focus of this provision of the bill is to get more farmers thinking of a total, full connection so they can work and interface with their utility company.

Caption: Legislation being drafted would make it easier for farmers who generate their own energy by wind turbines or other sources to sell excess power to utility companies. Photo by Jim Crotty, Picture Ohio, LLC