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Company to locate $200M ethanol plant in Cumberland County |
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Dec 22, 2006 - A Seattle company plans to build a $200 million plant near Fayetteville to turn corn into ethanol, joining an industry that's booming thanks to government subsidies and political desires to reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil. The plant would be the first for E85 Inc., named for the alcohol fuel mixture of gasoline and ethanol, which is produced by fermenting corn, grains or wood chips. The facility would be built on 150 acres near the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. plant north of Fayetteville in Cumberland County, company officials said Thursday. E85 officials said they want to build nine more plants across the United States, each using as much local corn as possible. The unused portion of the grain can be turned into animal feed, which officials hope will find a market with the North Carolina's poultry and swine producers. A competing company, Clean Burn Fuels, has already proposed building a smaller ethanol plant in neighboring Hoke County. E85 senior vice president Mark Dassel said that's not a problem. "It's a national thing," Dassel, speaking by telephone from Seattle, said at a news conference in Fayetteville. "We can't do it all. The market potential is immense." - AP
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