KANSAS CITY, Mo., Nov. 28, 2006 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Kansas City-based Alternative Energy Sources Inc. (OTCBB:AENS) today requested that the Illinois Finance Authority issue $70 million in tax-exempt, solid-waste bonds to finance pollution-control facilities and equipment for a planned 110-million-gallon ethanol plant in Kankakee, Ill., 65 miles south of Chicago.
"Bonds issued for this portion of the Kankakee facility and equipment are expected to be doubly tax-exempt," said John Holland, AENS's chief financial officer. "Illinois statutes will likely render interest on the bonds exempt from state income tax," he pointed out, noting that federal tax exemption relies on meeting the requirements of Sections 141 and 142 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954. AENS is working with the public finance division of Raymond James & Associates Inc. in Chicago.
"The ability to install pollution controls and to convert stillage to animal feed are both fundamental to our business model," said Lee Blank, AENS's chief operating officer. Stillage, a waste byproduct of the corn-to-ethanol process, can be converted to nutritious livestock feed, marketed and then shipped to remote markets in the United States and abroad.
Before designing the modern $220 million Kankakee plant, AENS initiated talks to expand feed markets, to ensure a customer base for its plants under development, said Mark Beemer, AENS president and CEO, including ones planned in Boone County, Iowa, and Greenville, Ill. All three plants will be designed to produce marketable livestock feed known as DDG (dried distillers grains).
"We can leave nothing to chance in our efforts to serve traditional and new markets for alternative energy," Beemer said, "and that includes marketing feed that can account for 10 to 15 percent of total revenue." He explained that profits for many other U.S. ethanol plants will diminish substantially if they are unable to successfully market livestock feed produced by the refining process.
Holland began his career with the Arthur Andersen & Co. accounting firm, and later rose to become chairman of Butler Manufacturing Co., with worldwide operations in steel and industrial building construction. An Iowa native, Beemer is a former vice president of Archer Daniels Midland's grain division, the nation's No. 1 ethanol producer. Blank is also an Iowa native and former ADM executive. In addition, John A. Ward, director of operations, is a chemical engineer with a Ph.D. from The Queens University of Belfast, Northern Ireland, and formerly was ADM's principal technical adviser for alcohol processing. The four seasoned executives comprise AENS's senior management team.
"We plan to start construction in about six months and have the Kankakee plant in operation by fall 2008," said Blank.
About Alternative Energy Sources Inc.: The company is developing "greenfield" sites, including constructing, owning and operating fuel-grade ethanol plants. The management team has extensive experience in agricultural processing, grain trading, railroad negotiations, logistical economics, construction, acquisitions and operating as a public company. The founders have extensive management and leadership experience, including serving in executive management positions with agri-processing giant Archer Daniels Midland Co., the largest producer of ethanol. For more information go to http://www.aensi.com.
Forward-Looking Statements: This news release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, including without limitation those statements regarding the company's ability to exploit ethanol development and production opportunities. These statements are expressed in good faith and based upon a reasonable basis when made, but there can be no assurance that these expectations will be achieved or accomplished. You can identify these statements by the fact that they do not relate strictly to historic or current facts. They use words such as "will," "anticipate," "estimate," "expect," "project," "intend," "plan," "believe," "target," "forecast" and other words and terms of similar meaning in connection with any discussion of future operating or financial performance. Although the forward-looking statements in this release reflect the good faith judgment of management, forward-looking statements are inherently subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to be materially different from those discussed in these forward-looking statements including, but not limited to, our inability to secure or generate sufficient operating cash flow to adequately maintain our generating facilities and service our debt, commodity pricing, intense competition for undervalued generating assets, environmental risks and general economic conditions and other financial, operational and legal risks and uncertainties detailed from time to time in the Company's SEC filings. Readers are urged not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this release. We assume no obligation to update any forward-looking statements in order to reflect any event or circumstance that may arise after the date of this release, other than as may be required by applicable law or regulation.