Biorefinery coming to Newton county

[5GallonBucket]

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almost posted this in the football forum😁 

😉

[CardinalBacker]

It sounds great on the surface, but the government subsidized biofuel/biomass projects seem like they've failed everywhere they've been tried.  There's a power plant in Woodville that was never utililzed after completion.  The pellet mill that's there has never operated anywhere near full capacity.  If you're familiar with east texas, it's not hard to remember LP in Silsbee, The Champion Mill in Sheldon, etc... heck, there was even a huge sawmill in Bon Weir until about 20 years ago.  I kinda wonder if that's where this project will be built.   

But the idea of 142 permanent jobs in Newton County AND a market for pine pulp/chips is worth the risk, I guess.  It could really be a game-changer out there.  Newton might fool around and get an electric scoreboard with lights if those goes right. 

[Bigdog]

5 hours ago, CardinalBacker said:

It sounds great on the surface, but the government subsidized biofuel/biomass projects seem like they've failed everywhere they've been tried.  There's a power plant in Woodville that was never utililzed after completion.  The pellet mill that's there has never operated anywhere near full capacity.  If you're familiar with east texas, it's not hard to remember LP in Silsbee, The Champion Mill in Sheldon, etc... heck, there was even a huge sawmill in Bon Weir until about 20 years ago.  I kinda wonder if that's where this project will be built.   

But the idea of 142 permanent jobs in Newton County AND a market for pine pulp/chips is worth the risk, I guess.  It could really be a game-changer out there.  Newton might fool around and get an electric scoreboard with lights if those goes right. 

They need something like this out there, especially the jobs.   Valero is building a biofuel unit in PA as well.

[CardinalBacker]

2 hours ago, Bigdog said:

They need something like this out there, especially the jobs.   Valero is building a biofuel unit in PA as well.

No doubt.... I just hope it works better than it has in a lot of other places.  Not necessarily with big wheels like Valero, but in a lot of places those guys come in and secure community funding to build a facility and pay themselves really well to do so... and it folds up in no time because the only money was made by the company pitching the project to local government.   

 

You know the old saying "There's only one way to win the shell game... be the guy who gets the other guy to play."