MOUNT VERNON, Ind. - Indiana's top environmental official said Thursday the new diesel fuel processing complex at Countrymark Co-op will boost local economic development by helping the area keep within federal ozone attainment standards.
Tom Easterly, commissioner of the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, said the $40 million facility would reduce nitrogen oxide emissions in Southwestern Indiana, thereby reducing ozone levels.
Southwest Indiana was only recently able to attain federal air-pollution standards. Until the area met those standards, federal and state officials restricted economic development in the area.
Without improvements such as the new Countrymark facility, "we'll be right back where we started from" in not being able to attain federal pollution standards, Easterly said.
Easterly and Indiana Lt. Gov. Becky Skillman were among the officials that attended Thursday's grand opening of Countrymark Co-op's new $40 million complex. The project, which began producing the new fuel more than a month ago, produces a fuel that meets federal standards that went into effect June 1.
Without the new complex, Countrymark would have been forced to close. That would have cost 140 local jobs and another 200 Countrymark jobs outside of Southwest Indiana, said John Deaton, senior vice president of operations. It also created 10 to 15 new jobs, he said.
Skillman said that, "by producing cleaner-burning fuels... Countrymark represents the good environmental stewardship that we all work to achieve."
"We're all so grateful that Countrymark has been such a strong partner with us," she said.
State Rep. Trent Van Haaften, D-Mount Vernon, said the investment also allows a long-time local employer to keep operating. "All of us here know of individuals that have worked here, raised families here and retired here," he said. Now that process will continue, he said.
Charlie Smith, CEO, said that the development of the new facility was more important now in an era of high fuel prices and concern about increased dependence on foreign oil. All of the oil refined at the facility will come from Indiana, Illinois and Kentucky, he said.
Countrymark Co-op is owned by about 50 member cooperatives who represent about 130,000 people in Indiana and Ohio, Smith said.