Construction on huge Posey County ethanol plant grinds to halt

The IBJ

Approximately 500 workers building an ethanol plant in Mount Vernon were pulled off the project yesterday, according to WFIE Channel 14 in Evansville.

The plant was announced in 2006 by Aventine Renewable Energy of Pekin, Ill., with intentions of bringing it online by 2010. Late last month, Aventine said in its third-quarter earnings report that it would consider delaying the facility to free liquidity.

Ethanol producers are struggling in the face of high corn prices.

Late last month, South Dakota-based VeraSun Energy Corp. sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization. VeraSun operates a plant at Linden, which is near Lafayette, but has put on hold a plant in Reynolds, a town also near Lafayette designed by Gov. Mitch Daniels to showcase alternative energy.