Tucumcari Ethanol Plant

Submitted by owner:

One of our towns in Quay County, Logan, NM,  got hit by a tornado this afternoon. There were 20 some residences damaged and some injuries but by the grace of God there were no fatalities. Our prayers go out to the inhabitants of Logan and Ute Lake.

With regards to the post below by grassfarmer concerning the water use by the incoming ethanol plant I just wish to explain to the readers ( do I even have readers?? ) that the initials OSE stand for the Office of the State Engineer. The OSE basically controls water use in New Mexico and they have declared several areas in the state water basins. That means that to drill a well, even on one’s own private land, one must apply for and receive a permit from the OSE.

I feel that the ethanol plant will be a good thing for the economy of Quay County with the addition of some 20 new jobs. Is ethanol truly a viable substitute for gasoline? As one who has worked in an ethanol plant before, I have to say probably not. The most valuable thing to come out of an ethanol plant are the by products that can be used as high protein animal feed. At the least, for a fuel to be viable, there should be more than one calorie output for each calorie input. I am not sure we are there for ethanol and that is why it still requires some pretty good tax payer subsidies.

By far the most promising ways to achieve energy self sufficiency, at least in my opinion, are wind, solar and nuclear technologies. Solar is a natural for the whole southwest and with the increasing efficiencies in battery technology we might be looking at reasonable electromotive transportation in 10 years. I hope anyway. Wind farming is already in play here in Quay County quite successfully. Nuclear is going to be a hard sell politically I believe because the far left crazies and their allies in the mass media would rather see us all freeze and starve before building more plants even though their bed-mates the French have nuclear plants all over France. But, what else is new?