Kansas Common Sense: U.S. Department of Agriculture Announcement

Statement

I was pleased that the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced their partnership with Western Plains Energy, LLC to support the construction of a biogas anaerobic digester in Oakley, KS. The completed project will replace natural gas with agricultural waste from a nearby cattle feedlot in the production of liquid transportation fuel. This announcement is great news for the economic development of Western Kansas because by investing in new technologies, Western Plains Energy is charting a path for future growth, creating jobs and opening the door for the use of feedlot waste in future energy projects. Western Plains Energy expects to complete construction of the biogas digester in August, which is scheduled to become fully operational in 2013. The digester should produce enough biogas to replace 89 percent of the fossil fuels that Western Plains currently uses to provide process heat at its Oakley, KS, ethanol plant, which produces 50 million gallons of ethanol annually.

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