A34-Lancaster Farming, ■
CWT Milk Price Program Scaled Back To 5 Cents Per Hundredweight
DAVE LEFEVER
Lancaster Farming Staff
WASHINGTON, D.C. This
week, a controversial self-help
proposal to reduce milk produc
tion and boost farm milk prices
nationwide was cut to less than a
third of its original scope.
The National Milk Producers
Federation (NMPF) failed to
gather enough support for its
idea of charging farmers 17.9
cents for each hundredweight of
milk they produce to make the
program work. As a result, the
proposed figure was cut to 5
cents early this week.
According to Walt Wosje, chief
operations officer of the initiative
called Cooperatives Working To
gether (CWT), the most resis
tance came from the central parts
Ethanol Company Moves Ahead
On Lancaster County Site
CONOY TOWNSHIP (Lan
caster Co.) It looks like one of
the nation’s largest ethanol
plants is coming to Lancaster
County and trash from the
area may help run it.
Penn-Mar Ethanol’s board of
directors voted last week to pur
sue building an $BO million plant
on 65 acres next to the Lancaster
County incinerator along the
Susquehanna River in the west
ern part of the county.
“We are focused on the Conoy
Township site,” said Scott Welsh,
project manager. “Unless we find
a problem there that we don’t an
ticipate, we will move forward
with the permitting process.”
The Lancaster County Solid
Waste Management Authority’s
incinerator may provide the ener
gy needed by the plant to convert
com into ethanol.
“We were very pleased to hear
(Penn-Mar chose the Conoy
site),” said James Warner, execu
tive director of the authority.
“We think that there are some
terrific synergies between their
operation and ours.”
The authority approved a
$25,000 purchase option May 23,
giving Penn-Mar a year to pur
chase the property for $2.7 mil
lion. But the company also con
sidered an undisclosed site,
thought to be in York County.
Welsh said that both were “good,
solid sites” but the board felt the
Conoy site offered more business
opportunities.
“The rail service there is a real
strength,” he said. “We had to
have good rail and good utilities.
Natural gas, electric, water
they’re all there.”
Welsh said Penn-Mar is also
looking seriously at the possibili
ty of purchasing steam from the
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of the country where dairy farm
ers see their regions as having too
little, not too much, milk.
“There is some feeling that,
well, we didn’t cause the sur
plus." Wosje said of the lack of
support for the program in cer
tain areas.
In recent years, states in the
West and Southwest have seen
the most dramatic increase in
milk production in the nation.
NMPF has said that the pro
gram needs a minimum of 70
percent of the nation’s milk pro
duction, with an original goal of
signing up 80 percent. The larg
est cooperatives are-on board, in
cluding Dairy Farmers of Ameri
ca (DFA) and Land O’ Lakes, but
a number of the country’s smaller
cooperatives and independent
authority. Steam is used in the
cooking process of the com, he
said, and to run a turbine to pro
duce electricity. The authority
uses steam from the incinerator
to produce electricity that it sells
to Metropolitan Edison Compa
ny. With Metropolitan’s permis
sion, the authority would like to
sell some of that steam to Penn-
Mar.
Warner said the authority first
needs to address several issues
with its electric sales agreement
with Metropolitan, but he thinks
a deal can be worked out.
Working with Penn-Mar could
benefit both the authority and
Penn-Mar, Warner said. The au
thority could increase its reve
nues by selling steam to Penn-
Mar rather than converting it all
into electricity.
Warner said steam would be a
cheaper source of energy than
natural gas for Penn-Mar, and
that its use would save water and
nearly eliminate combustion
emissions.
“It would be terrific from an
environmental standpoint,” he
said. “You are creating renewa
ble fuel without having any emis
sions into the environment.”
Penn-Mar would also save
money in construction costs,
Warner said.
The authority says just one of
its three boilers could provide all
the energy Penn-Mar would
need.
Welsh said Penn-Mar will
apply for necessary air-quality
approvals from the Department
of Environmental Protection and
request a zoning change for the
Conoy site within a month.
The property would have to be
rezoned from agricultural to in
dustrial to accommodate the
producers are not.
Wosje said Wednesday that
participation is “right around 70
percent.” July 8 is the deadline
for the board of directors to de
termine whether the program will
move ahead with the 5 cent as
sessment.
Wosje said said he is “positive”
about the scaled down version of
CWT moving forward.
Alan Wagner, editor of the
USDA’s Fluid Milk and Cream
Review, said in his July 2 report
that “contacts close to the (CWT)
issue, citing sharply higher cheese
prices, lower cow numbers, and
below year-ago milk output, feel
that the plan may be beyond re
viving at this time.”
Herd buyouts, production cut
back incentives, and export price
plant, so Conoy supervisors will
have the final say on the project.
Ethanol is most often mixed
with gasoline to boost octane and
reduce environmentally harmful
emissions.
The plant would also produce
carbon dioxide, used in soft
drink-bottling plants, and wet
distillers grain, which can be used
by farmers as a high-protein feed
source for their livestock. Town
ship officials have seemed recep
tive to the project, though they
haven’t seen official plans,
according to Welsh.
Gaining local approvals and
permitting will dictate the time
line for the project, but Welsh
said he thinks the company will
be able to financially close on the
project by the end of the year.
That would mean construction
could start in early 2004 and the
plant could be up and running in
early 2005.
Welsh said the other site con
sidered was larger and provided
greater future expansion possibil
ities. But the board felt the
Conoy site could provide enough
space as well.
The plant would be the first in
the state and one of the first on
the East Coast. It is expected to
contribute $24.7 million a year to
Pennsylvania’s economy, accord
ing to Penn-Mar.
The plant would convert 18
million bushels of com into SO
million gallons of ethanol a year.
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report.
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assistance make up CWT s three
legged proposal to lift milk prices
out of the unprecedented slump
they’ve been in since late 2001.
Most of the buyout and reduc
tion incentives are targeted to
western and southwestern states.
Wosje said that even though
dairies in certain regions are
most responsible for overproduc
tion of milk, the effects of it are
felt “in every nook and cranny”
of the nation.
All dairy farmers, large and
small, and with a major coopera
tive or not, will benefit from the
CWT, according to Wosje.
“Can farmers actually get to
gether, join hands, and do some
thing short of going to the gov
ernment?” he said.
The new CWT proposal would
Engineering Facility Affirms Pa,
As A Leader In Wind Energy
BOOTHWYN (Delaware Co.)
Department of Environmental
Protection (DEP) Acting Secre
tary Kathleen A. McGinty re
cently helped mark the official
opening of AdvanTek Interna
tiona) LLC, a wind energy engi
neering facility that recently relo
cated from Delaware to
Pennsylvania.
The facility, which employs 13
engineers and technical staff, will
play a critical role in improving
the efficiency of and doubling the
land area for wind development
in Pennsylvania.
“Fostering the development of
companies like AdvanTek not
only helps to cut pollution and
improve environmental quality,
but it also gives Pennsylvania a
commanding edge in the renewa
ble energy market, allowing for
more opportunities in technology
development and job growth,”
said McGinty.
Pennsylvania is already the
leader on the east coast of the
United States in wind energy
production. Wind farms in Penn
sylvania produce 35 megawatts
of electricity enough to power
about 10,000 homes with an
other 110 megawatts coming on
line within the next year.
Demand for clean electricity
continues to grow. Recently, the
Pennsylvania Turnpike Authori
ty, Swarthmore Borough,
Swarthmore College and the
use the proceeds from the 5 cent
per hundredweight assessment
on participating dairy producers
to reduce milk supplies by a pro
jected 1.2 billion pounds over the
next 12 months. According to the
NMPF, that should boost all-milk
prices by an average of 23 cents
per hundredweight.
The original CWT would have
raised the price by 80 cents,
according to planners.
“We created Cooperatives
Working Together because our
members told us they wanted to
take control of the economics of
their market,” said Jerry Kozak,
NMPF president and CEO. “Low
milk prices are every dairy farm
er’s problem, regardless of size or
location. Every farmer needs to
be part of the solution.”
University of Pennsylvania all in
creased their commitments to
wind power by purchasing New
Wind Energy from Community
Energy, a Delaware County
based renewable energy market
ing company.
Community Energy partners
with existing electric suppliers to
make renewable electricity avail
able to commercial and residen
tial customers.
Pennsylvania has been work
ing to balance the need for af
fordable, reliable power with en
vironmental concerns, making
the state a leader in clean energy
generation.
AdvanTek’s technology will
help to build a better rotor and
wind industry in Pennsylvania,
ensuring continued economic
growth, environmental protection
and energy security.
AdvanTek’s decision to relo
cate and operate here comes as
DEP launches a $5 million initia
tive, Pennsylvania Energy Har
vest, to encourage the develop
ment of clean energy sources,
such as biomass, wind, solar,
small-scale hydroelectric, landfill
methane, coal-bed methane, and
even waste-coal.
Some of the sources are not
truly renewable but offer measur
able environmental benefits to
Pennsylvania in terms of pollu
tion reduction, environmental
quality, and energy generation.
New Holland, PA 17557
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