Wednesday was a difficult day for The American Independent News Network, which is the larger entity that operates The Iowa Independent. Our chief executive and founder announced two of our sister sites would close and their content would be moved to The American Independent.
A recently introduced bill could have far-reaching impact on the U.S. sugar industry, including American Crystal Sugar, a farmer-owned cooperative that locked out 1,300 Midwest workers on Aug. 1.
The chairman for Herman Cain’s Iowa effort says the campaign “relied more on the word of farmers than Washington regulators” in deciding to run an ad containing claims the Environmental Protection Agency says are false.
The Iowa Senate will remain under the control of a slim 26-25 Democratic majority when it reconvenes in January 2012.
An Iowa biodiesel refinery shut down last fall due to fire is expected to resume production later this month.
Kenneth Hern, chief executive of Nova Biosource Fuels, Inc., said a review of the plant’s fire protection systems and procedures has been conducted. The fire, which broke out early on the morning of Sept. 30 and was contained within the plant’s primary recovery column, occurred when the plant had been idled for maintenance. While no employees were injured, a fire fighter received minor steam burns while extinguishing the blaze.
“The repairs to the damaged equipment are now completed at a cost of less than $100,000,” Hern said. “We are optimistic that the refinery will be functioning and ready to re-establish operations during early 2009. We want to extend our appreciation to our engineering and construction staff, who efficiently and effectively repaired the damaged equipment, returning the refinery to a production-ready status.”
The fire was believed to have been started by a build up of methanol vapors in the column during a ventiliation process, a portion of the maintenance activities. The plant in Clinton is slated to resume production as a 10 million gallon per year facility.
Nova, a Houston-based company, entered into an asset purchase agreement in August 2007 to acquire the Clinton facility, which was designed and built by Nova for Clinton County Bio Energy LLC. The plant was the first commercial scale biodiesel refinery to utilize Nova’s proprietary processing technology. Former New York Gov. George Pataki and several other state and national politicians have toured the plant.
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