Gingrich praises ethanol’s benefits

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich toured the trading offices and headquarters of an Omaha-based ethanol company Thursday, touting the corn-based fuel additive as a key part of U.S. efforts to reduce dependence on foreign oil and create environmentally friendly, renewable fuels.

“We do not want to be largely dependent on foreign dictatorships who at some point down the road could blackmail us, basically giving us the choice of an economic catastrophe or doing what they want,” Gingrich told workers and executives at Green Plains Renewable Energy at 9420 Underwood Ave.

Green Plains began operating its first ethanol plant in Shenandoah, Iowa, in 2007 and has grown to become the fourth-largest ethanol producer in the country, with two plants in Iowa, two in Nebraska, one in Indiana and one in Tennessee.

It employs about 50 people in Omaha and 400 nationwide in 10 states.

The company’s Omaha office handles the marketing and distribution of corn, natural gas, ethanol and ethanol byproducts for its plants, emphasizing risk management and margin expansion.

Green Plains also markets ethanol made by other producers, it owns a grain and farm supply business in northwest Iowa and is a majority owner of a biofuels blending and terminal company.

Todd Becker, Green Plains president and CEO, formerly was a commodities trading executive at Omaha-based ConAgra Foods. He led Gingrich on a tour of Green Plains’ headquarters, while employees quietly talked on telephones and worked at computers on a trading floor flanked by offices.

Gingrich, a longtime supporter of ethanol, is an adviser for industry promoter Growth Energy, which Green Plains and other ethanol producers founded in 2008.

One of the group’s missions is to counter arguments made by ethanol critics that the fuel additive’s present reliance on corn results in higher food prices.

Gingrich said transportation, packaging, marketing, labor and other costs play larger roles in the price of food than the corn produced by farmers. Big oil companies helped fund the food-vs.-fuel debate, Gingrich said, and ethanol backers needed to fight back.

“If you don’t have a group that represents you, that gets up in the morning and says ‘Oh, here’s the new attack, we better have an answer by noon,’” the opposing side can overwhelm the debate, Gingrich said.

In an interview after his talk to Green Plains workers, Gingrich said ethanol production has grown in importance for the United States partly because it continues to become more efficient to produce.

On other topics Gingrich, a Republican, said:

— Congress probably will pass a health-care reform bill, but it might be too expensive and bureaucratic to be good for the country.

— The Obama administration’s efforts to rid the world of nuclear arms through multinational treaties will not work. “How he (Obama) thinks we’re going to get to a treaty that you can rely on, that you could trust countries to implement, is, I think, pretty dangerous.”

Contact the writer:

444-1117, joe.ruff@owh.com

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