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Getting Insured

Posted: March 9, 2009 at 10:21 AM CST

Spring officially starts March 20. It can’t come fast enough. As I write this I’m in the center of a blizzard watch. Snow is beginning to fly after a brief early-morning dash of freezing rain. As others have experienced, we’ve had a healthy winter with plenty of snow, which makes it difficult to look forward to another potential eight to 10 inches of it over the next two days.

Following last fall’s unusually wet weather, it’s bringing flood insurance to the forefront. While it’s been on my list for months, it’s one $300 bill I’ve managed to procrastinate on.

Last week I had the chance to learn a little bit more about an insurance available to ethanol producers. EPM’s Kris Bevill recorded a podcast about her March EPM feature, which can be read here: http://www.ethanolproducer.com/article.jsp?article_id=5347. The podcast will be up this week and in our archive page: http://www.ethanolproducer.com/podcast/.

Both items discuss environmental risk protection, which is likely a little-thought-of option that could provide protection to ethanol producers. Ken Ayers of Aon Corp. describes why it’s important: “If you’re brought into litigation over an environmental release, meaning that you’ve released something into the air or the soil or the water and people take you to court over it, it will pay the legal defense for that,” he says.

That’s one of several reasons to consider environmental risk protection. Check out the links for more information. With that, another look out the window tells me it’s time to call my insurance agent…

-Dave Nilles