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Study shows positive economic impacts of Nebraska’s ethanol industry

A new study documents the positive economic impacts of Nebraska’s ethanol industry.

One of the study’s authors, UNL ag economist Kate Brooks, says 94 percent of the ethanol produced, and nearly half of the distillers grains, are shipped out of state.

“If we look at that economic impact in 2017, from all of that going out of the state, it brings about 4.1 billion dollars back to the state,” Brooks says.

The study also shows, as of 2017, Nebraska’s 24 ethanol plants had nearly 15-hundred full-time employees. On average, they earned over 78-thousand dollars annually, which Nebraska Ethanol Board chairman Jan tenBensel of Cambridge says is very significant.

“Those 15-hundred jobs are pretty hard to come by—good paying jobs like that in rural Nebraska,” tenBensel says. “They say a dollar turns seven times in a community—and when you come to small town and see what an ethanol plant has done for it, it very clear that is true.”

The study found the positive economics also occur in the local corn market due to higher demand from nearby ethanol plants. Brooks notes a consistently positive impact on local basis (the difference between the local cash price and the futures price) from ethanol production. For example, a producer near an ethanol plant producing 220 bushels of corn per acre would receive an additional $11.44 per acre each year.

The study was conducted by UNL economists on behalf of the Nebraska Ethanol Board.

AUDIO: Kate Brooks

AUDIO: Jan tenBensel

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