“This has been a long time coming,” Sarnia Mayor Mike Bradley tells Blackburn News. “It was 18 years ago that the economic leaders, political leaders and industry leaders said we need to move to bio-fuels.” He called BioAmber, a biobased succinic acid producer whose commercial facility is the anchor for biobased development in the region, the first breakthrough
“Now we’re seeing, because we’ve developed this cluster, we’ve had delegations in from around the world looking at how Sarnia-Lambton became this cluster,” he adds. “We’re very fortunate. We have the existing industry. We have lands that are very easy to renew. We have cooperation with business and labor and we have the agricultural sector. It all fits. Not any other community has that. Plus, the research side with the Research Park.”
The site Sacramento-based Origin aims to acquire was previously a synthetic rubber production facility.