Press Gaggle by Deputy Press Secretary Bill Burton, 4/28/2010

9:46 A.M. CDT

MR. BURTON:  Good morning.  Thank you for joining us.  We’re going to have some long drives today, but we’ll see some beautiful parts of the country. 

So, at 12:20 p.m., the President is going to tour the facility at POET Biorefining.  The remarks will be about 1:00 p.m.  It’s in Macon, Missouri.  He’ll talk to workers about what they’re experiencing during these tough economic times and share ideas for rebuilding our economy in the long term.  Secretary Vilsack is, again, along with us for the day.  He’ll be with us all the way to the White House later on.

At that event we expect all the statewide officials and the mayor of Macon, Doug Bagley; the general manager of POET Biorefining, Steve Burnett, will lead the tour.

We will then — sorry, just a little more on POET.  In Macon they produced their first ethanol in May of 2000, starting with an annual production capacity of 15 million gallons.  Three years later the plant expanded its capacity to 46 million gallons per year and added the production of Dakota Gold Distillers Grains and carbon dioxide.  The Macon facility was the first ethanol plant in the state of Missouri and currently employs 45 people.

The plant purchases 16 million bushels of corn from 650 local farmers, which annually produces, like I said, 46 million gallons of ethanol, which primarily goes to St. Louis and Palmyra, Missouri, 140,000 tons of high-protein animal feed called Dakota Gold Distillers Grains that’s sold to area farmers, and 94,000 tons of CO2, which is sold to soft-drink companies, food processors, water treatment facilities, to name a few.  They also have really cool commercials at POET