Gulfstream Bioflex cancels Missouri corn ethanol project, citing feedstock costs

In Missouri, Gulfstream Bioflex Energy has canceled its plan to build a corn ethanol plant in Monroe City. Monroe County Administrator Jim Burns said that high feedstock prices were the cause of the cancellation.

The controversial 100 Mgy, $165 million Gulfstream Bioflex Energy corn ethanol plant in Rogersville recently received its air permit from the Missouri Department of Natural Resources. The project was delayed by a local resident lawsuit alleging that the project would damage the quality of local groundwater. The lawsuit is pending on appeal after the courts ruled in the company’s favor in May 2007.

Ethanol plant development in Missouri slowed to a standstill at the end of last summer. After boom conditions in recent years, no new plants were submitted or revised permit applications after July 2007, and none of the three pending, approved projects have been built, including Renewable Power of Missouri and Ethanex. The third company, Bootheel Agri-Energy, said it would return equity invested in the company to shareholders, with interest, after the project failed to obtain a required financing commitment by the expiration of the equity offering period.

In more positive Missouri ethanol news, the 55 Mgy, $90 million Show Me corn ethanol plant in Carrolton is nearing its opening “any day” as of last week. The plant will produce 176,000 tons of dried distillers grains for livestock feed, and will employ 35 people on its 33 acre site.

The plant ran into difficulties when it was revealed that state Rep. John Quinn, the brother of state Governor Matt Blunt, and the wife of U.S. Rep. Sam Graves are Show Me Ethanol investors. State rules prohibit legislators or their immediate family from becoming investors in plants that receive favorable state tax treatment, and the plant lost $6 million in state incentives because of the ties to lawmakers.

Show Me Ethanol had been seeking $5.1 million to complete construction of its 55 Mgy corn ethanol plant in Carollton. The company prepared a shareholders rights offering for the remaining equity raise. Total plant construction costs are projected at $82 million.

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