Menu
POET celebrates reopening in Cloverdale
CLOVERDALE — With local farmers and community and state leaders in attendance, POET set its return with a reopening ceremony Thursday at the plant in Cloverdale.
The occasion was highlighted by remarks from Gov. Eric Holcomb, Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch and Rep. Jim Baird, who touted POET’s investment and impact in the state’s agricultural economy as a whole.
“To have you here continuing to deepen your roots here on Hoosier soil is a real source of pride,” Holcomb said to the South Dakota-based company’s focus on sustainability. “(You are) to help us ensure that we will be good stewards of the good Lord’s resources, and be proud to do it.”
POET is the world’s largest producer of biofuels, with products including animal feed, corn oil, asphalt rejuvenator, purified alcohol and renewable carbon dioxide.
The plant, which was acquired in 2010 after a previous company was shuttered, was idled in 2019 after what POET provided as being government mismanagement of small refinery exemptions (SREs). The company announced its resumption in May of last year.
“By reopening this plant, we now have a new market for our Indiana farmers who grow and produce corn,” Crouch said. “I want to thank POET for investing in our Earth, and investing in the life that we live not only today, but that we’re going to live tomorrow.”
POET states that it has invested $30 million in new technology and upgrades to bring the facility up to optimal standards, and increase its annual production rate from 80 million to 95 million gallons of bioethanol. Fifty more full-time jobs are also to be created.
“We’re right in the heart of the raw materials they need for their plant,” Baird noted. “Agriculture is the foundation of these rural communities, and your contribution here to our local farmers is immense.”
A full story on the event will be forthcoming in the Banner Graphic.