Originally published February 12 2006
BP plant could make Maryland community a major center in alternative fuel industry
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
As economic development officials from BP lay the groundwork for a biodiesel production plant, the project could put Frederick, MD, on the map in terms of the alternative fuel industry, said Richard Griffin, the city’s director of economic development.
Already home to the growing world headquarters of BP Solar, Frederick could become a major center in the burgeoning alternative fuel industry, as economic development officials also lay the groundwork for a biodiesel production plant.
''I expect significant expansion here," Richard Griffin, the city's director of economic development, said at a ceremony last month marking BP's expansion.
Griffin said his agency ''is very excited about the prospect of Frederick and Maryland leading the way in alternative renewable energy incentives, particularly solar, for a number of reasons."
Maryland has what Griffin calls a ''technology-based knowledge economy" that can be at the forefront of research and development of new technologies and that includes the development and cultivation of alternative renewable energy resources.
While Griffin is primarily eyeing solar power, Colby Ferguson, an agricultural specialist with the Frederick County Office of Economic Development, is working to bring biodiesel manufacturing to the county, an industry that would benefit the county's soybean farmers.
Ferguson said he is also working with Windridge Farm, owned by the Butz family, which is planning to build a soybean-crushing facility --- and possibly a plant to convert extracted soy oil into biodiesel.
Maryland soybean farmers sell their soybeans for a reduced price --- the beans are railed out to the Midwest --- while the Maryland livestock and poultry producers buy soybean meal at a retail price with the meal railed in from the Midwest."
Jeremy Butz, who co-owns and works Windridge Farm in Adamstown with his brothers, explained how Maryland farmers could benefit from a local crushing plant.
Butz said he doesn't have specific revenue and cost projections.
''It may be more appropriate for [the government] to contract biodiesel from a farmer-owned plant for fleet vehicles such as school buses, county and state highway vehicles, and mass-transit vehicles," Ferguson said.
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