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Obama stops by Macon plant

Posted: May 3, 2010 at 11:32 AM CST

Guest blog by Holly Jessen, associate editor

I’m still struggling to come back to earth after my trip to Poet’s ethanol plant in Macon, Mo., last week. The fact that President Barack Obama visited an ethanol plant means a lot to the whole industry—and it means a lot to us here at Ethanol Producer Magazine too. It means ethanol, including corn ethanol, is on his radar.

Of course, this isn’t the first indication of that. In a February statement on reaching the President’s biofuels target, it was said that the strategy included continued support of developing first and second generation biofuels as well as a strong focus on drop-in biofuels. The statement recognized that it makes sense to produce ethanol from corn in the Midwest. “American farmers know how to efficiently produce corn, and the technology for producing corn-based ethanol is well established,” the statement said. “This helps account for the remarkable growth in the agricultural-based ethanol biofuels industry that grew from 1 percent of the U.S. fuel supply in 2000 to 7 percent in 2008.”

Besides that, the President was aware of the importance of ethanol even before he was elected—as he pointed out during his speech at the plant on April 28. When he was a Senator, Obama visited the ethanol plant in Charles City, Iowa, now owned and operated by Valero Energy Corp.

Still, there’s a lot to be said for an elected President of the United States actually stepping inside an ethanol plant. It doesn’t really matter what name is displayed on the ethanol plant, the whole industry should feel a boost from this.

It was an interesting process getting me to Macon to cover the President’s visit. It started last Friday, when we first heard the rumors that the Commander in Chief might be stopping by Poet’s plant in Macon. By Friday afternoon we confirmed that he would stop by Macon, but not exactly where. It wasn’t until Monday morning that we received confirmation from Poet—the company was indeed preparing for a visit from Obama.

That’s when things really kicked into high gear. At my request, Poet’s public relations department hooked me up with a link to a page at White House Press Office Web site. There I submitted my name and contact information as a possible guest at the event. When, by the end of the day, I hadn’t heard anything yet, I assumed the answer was going to be no. Imagine my surprise at finding an acceptance email in my inbox that was sent at 5:09 p.m. Monday, April 26. The next morning I booked a flight and reserved a rental car in St. Louis. By 1:30 p.m. Tuesday I was in the air over Grand Forks, N.D., and by 10 p.m. that night I was checking into my hotel in Macon.

The event itself was pretty crazy. I can’t think of any other way to describe it. There were 133 invited guests, I’d estimate about half Poet employees or board members and half media. In order to get inside, I handed over my driver’s license and had my name checked off the list of invitees three times, my bag was sniffed by a bomb dog and I was scanned by a metal detector wand. Finally, I was inside the grains building, where Poet held the event. By the way, I grew up in small town Minnesota and I’ve never seen a grains building look so good! Poet Macon employees did a great job of scouring that place clean for the event.

When the President arrived and started his tour of the plant, the whole room went quiet and stayed quiet until "Hail to the Chief" started playing, announcing his entrance into the grains room. He gave a short but very positive speech about biofuels, calling Poet’s plant in Macon a success story for the jobs it provides in that area. And then it was over. Although it had been billed as a Q&A, there was no Q and no A. But that’s OK. All in all, the event had a big positive impact on the ethanol industry as a whole, and me personally. It will be exciting—as always—to see where the industry goes from here.

-Holly Jessen