Summit Ag Chairman says pipeline project to grow ethanol plants by millions of bushels annually

A look into what this means for the city

The Summit Agricultural Group's chairman, Bruce Rastetter, announced this week that a new project will increase local ethanol plant production to meet the growing demands.

The new pipeline will move corn to multiple ethanol plants resulting in millions of bushels being created annually with the first phase of the project expected to begin construction in the spring of 2023.

Future plans

The first phase of the project will result in a 30 million bushel increase in production. But the long term goal is to move up to 100 million bushels per year.

The new pipeline will begin in northwest Iowa and stretch to several ethanol plants in the area.

Bruce Rastetter stated that Iowa currently produces 2.5 billion gallons of ethanol. The Summit Group is the largest shareholder of Green Plains which produces about 1 billion gallons.

The plant in Shenandoah will not be included in the first phase of the project but they do plan to tie into it at a later time.

The project was given an 8 million dollar loan from the Iowa Economic Development Authority.