The head of the nation’s largest ethanol producer says his firm is being unfairly portrayed as the beneficiary of a controversial shift in a state lottery grant recommended by the Nebraska Environmental Trust Board, reports the Omaha World-Herald.
Todd Becker of Omaha-based Green Plains Inc. said the $1.8 million shifted away from wetland and conservation easement projects would be parceled out in grants to retail gas stations, not his firm, to help pay for the installation of “blender” pumps that can deliver fuel with 15% to 85% ethanol.
Becker, as well as a state ethanol advocate, said the only reason his company was part of the grant application was to help increase the chances of obtaining the grant, which will be parceled out by the Nebraska Department of Environment and Energy to the gas stations.
