During the first national push to replace a portion of the nation’s gasoline with ethanol derived from homegrown corn Virginia was one of the most active states. Because it was located close to the fuel consuming Washington area, grew lots of corn, and had a large dairy industry to consume the byproduct distillers grains Northern Virginia and the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia were very attractive locations. The state legislature passed some tax incentives to get the industry moving and a number of ethanol plants were planned for the area.
This all ended in the early 80's when the Middle East suppliers dropped the price of crude oil to $15 per barrel and the nation was convinced that the problem was solved.
Twenty-five years later high quality crude oil is now approaching $70 per barrel and mostly available from unstable and unfriendly countries. The ethanol- for-fuel boom is back. There are 97 plants now operating and another 42 new plants going on line or expanding this year. Four billion gallons of fuel ethanol were produced in 2005. This amount will surely double within a few years. With all of the cash staying in the US instead of leaving the country, we appear to have finally learned our lesson. The industry is definitely here to stay.
But this time Northern Virginia will be a consumer, not a producer. The cornfields and dairy farms are replaced with housing developments and shopping centers. It is now more profitable to grow houses than corn. The excitement and energy of combining our agricultural strength with our process engineering skills to solve a national problem has all moved to the mid-west. That area deserves tremendous credit for keeping the vision alive until now, when the country desperately needs it.
On behalf of all those who were active in the early Virginia initiatives we are sorry our state can't be a larger part of the excitement.
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