Alice Havill (LanzaTech): It will come down to communities to be able
to establish their own fuels, their own chemicals, and their own energy.
And that's a great thing, because that bringing the economics, environment, and the community
aspect all altogether.
Donny Schultz (INEOS Bio): Here locally on the plant side of course,
we employ 60-70 people here, I think it is, and maybe a little more than that.
We also indirectly have contractors that work here, as we have projects, we hire contractors
to come in.
So, we sustain quite a few new jobs, just developing this industry.
Nigel Falcon (INEOS Bio): What we've managed to do here is build this
first commercial plant.
We have created full-time over 100 jobs annually on our site, working for us or for our support
companies.
They are highly technical, high-paid valuable jobs in a community which I believe needs
that sort of work.
We've also created a lot of wealth through supporting local companies in terms of things
that we need to buy, our raw materials, our longer maintenance requirements.
And the original, when we built the plant, we were able to buy the majority of equipment
that was used in the plant, from US suppliers.
So, both for the US economy and for the local economy, I think we've had a very positive
impact, and it continues.
Harold Reetz (Reetz Agronomics): We need to keep our mind open to the opportunities
that this whole bioenergy system provides.
From the standpoint of growing the crop, growing the seed stocks that it takes to plant the
crop, the production systems, the harvesting, the transport, the processing, and even the
end markets of how those are used.
All of that will require people, it will require investments, it will require people that have
the vision and take advantage of those opportunities.
Jack Rowden (Hugoton): Several communities around us have benefited
by having Abengoa come to our community, and having their workers live in their communities,
spending money, buying homes in their communities.
So, it's not just helped Hugoton, Kansas, but also the southwest Kansas area, and the
Texas Panhandle.
Ruth Van Horn (Hugoton): Our stores, a lot of small businesses in town,
benefited from the construction and the barrage of construction workers that were here.
And now, we look at the fact that we have longtime employees that are starting to move
here.
So now, we have an increased large business to provide for our community.
Debbie Nordling (Hugoton): I began to realize the depth of what we had
happen in here was not only, was our main street busy, and our grocery store busy, and
our filling stations, and all that that entailed.
But people were also getting in the car and going to these other communities.
It benefited everybody around, and I would venture to say probably if you were within
a 60 to 90 mile radius, you had a great opportunity.
Deputy Secretary Mike Naig (Des Moines, IA): As I think back to my own experience on our
family farm in northwest Iowa, we've certainly seen the impact of bioenergy and renewable
fuels, ethanol production in particular, in our immediate area.
And in particular now, with a project cellulosic ethanol project in Emmettsburg, and the impact
that that has on the producers, on the farmers the area.
It's about driving value back to the farm gate, it's about really nothing short of national
security when we talk about domestic energy production, it's about economic development,
value-added agriculture, and jobs.
And these are things that we hope can impact our farmers, our communities, all across our
state.
And truly, across the United States as well, as other industries and other feedstocks are
able to come online and enter into this larger bioenergy landscape.