KANSAS CITY, Mo., Oct. 23, 2006 (PRIMEZONE) -- Kansas City-based Alternative Energy Sources Inc. (OTCBB:AENS) today announced plans to build a 110-million-gallon ethanol plant in Greenville, Ill., 45 miles east of St. Louis. This follows announcements in August that the company plans to build ethanol plants in Central Iowa and Northern Illinois.
The Greenville plant will be adjacent to the CSX and BNSF main railroad lines and served by the Illinois Western Railroad. Access to two mainline railroads offers competitive advantages, including maximum flexibility in shipping products and leveraging of freight arbitrage opportunities. The plant location is within five minutes of Interstate 70 and 30 minutes from Interstate 55 and 64, providing truck transport to Midwestern markets. "With both rail and truck shipping capabilities readily available, we will be able to serve national markets as well as neighboring communities in Central and Southern Illinois and Eastern Missouri," stated Mark Beemer, AENS president and CEO.
AENS has optioned 100 acres at the John W. Kelsey Business & Technology Park. "The amount of land optioned allows for the large footprint needed for flexibility in plant design and to apply our business model," said Lee Blank, AENS executive vice president and chief operating officer. Blank and Beemer are both former executives of Archer Daniels Midland Co., the nation's No. 1 ethanol producer.
Construction is planned to begin within the next year, with the plant scheduled to be in operation by late 2008. To obtain funding for infrastructure needs and move forward with the project, meetings will be held with local, state and federal officials. Using more than 40 million bushels of corn annually, the plant will be a major consumer of corn grown in Bond, Fayette and Effingham Counties. Annual output is projected to be more than 110 million gallons of ethanol.
Once in operation, the plant will provide jobs for 45 to 55 people with payroll between $2.5 and $3.5 million. The facility will have many components in common with those in the 110-million-gallon plants to be built in Boone County, Iowa, and Kankakee, Ill. All of the plants are projected to produce about 100 carloads of ethanol per week.
Beemer further noted U.S. automakers are producing more vehicles that run on a fuel mix of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline, and that gas stations are continually gaining customers at their E-85 pumps.
"With Carlyle SynTec expanding its facility with a new 300,000 square foot warehouse and now the announcement by AENS of a new ethanol facility, Greenville continues to expand its industrial base," said Alan Gaffner, Greenville mayor. "This provides additional momentum for further activity in our industrial park, which has been identified as one of the most attractive in Central and Southern Illinois. Greenville is positioned close enough to have benefits of the city, but also has the benefits of a rural community."
Greenville's economic development department works hard to bring industrial prospects to the Howard Wolf and John Kelsey Industrial Parks. "We are delighted with AENS's decision to locate their plant in Greenville," said David Willey, city manager. "We are looking forward to a completed project and further development in the park."
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.
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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.