Dennis Egan, President, and CEO of Epitome Energy, LLC visited Crookston Tuesday morning to share his vision with members of the Crookston City Council, Crookston Housing and Economic Development Authority Board members, and about 40 local farmers. Things have continued to develop positively over the past month since Epitome Energy announced it plans to open a 21-million bushel soybean solvent-extraction facility, 30-million gallon biodiesel facility and specialty soybean mechanical extraction point to the extent Egan was able to provide a timeline that will lead up to the companies proposed groundbreaking. “We’re looking at raising our seed money the 2nd or maybe third quarter of this year,” said Egan. “That triggers a number of different components. We’ll start our EAW worksheet, which is our environmental worksheet. That’s about a three-month process, but simultaneously we’ll be finishing our final design with our technology provider. And then we’ll be able to get into the actual permit work for our air permit. We’ve been told by the MPCA to plan for a 10-18-month timeframe. We think though since it’s technology that has already been approved in other parts of Minnesota and with our EAW worksheet, we can keep that in the 10-12-month range. Once our air permit is in place, we hope to be able to break ground in what would be Spring of 2021.”
Egan says the company has been intentional about trying to incorporate Minnesota based businesses into getting the plan off the ground. One example is Christianson and Associates, PLLP, based out of Willmar who have been involved in some aspects of the project development and will be the companies CPA firm. Egan said they bring a wealth of knowledge as a company that works with about 125 ethanol plants and another 30-40 biodiesel crush facilities throughout the country. “It has been a focus and intentional on our part that if we have Minnesota based companies that can help us move this project forward let’s utilize them. The companies that are going to do our air permits and our civil engineering our from Minnesota. One of our technology companies we’ve narrowed down to is from Minnesota and both construction companies we’ve narrowed it down to are from Minnesota. Both have great experience building industrial to ethanol, biodiesel or crush facilities. Minnesota has an abundance of vendors and companies that have worked in the ag space, so let’s utilize Minnesota companies. And then we want to be able to maximize existing companies in Crookston and the area. We’ll be looking for partners in this area to help us move the project forward as well.”
One of the essential things Egan hopes the group walked out of the meeting with was the economic impact Epitome Energy would bring to the region. “The over $300 million in economic impact to the region and if you bring that down to the job specifics of the site we’re going to have between 80-100 jobs. We’re working with existing industry. We want to raise everybody’s ability to find, retain and attract a good workforce. We know that there are families that are traveling outside of Crookston for the job. We want to give them the opportunity to work in Crookston. We’re going to have over a $5 million payroll with above minimum wage jobs. Somebody can come here and work in this facility and make $60,000-80,000. Not every job is going to be that, we’re going to have some entry-level jobs as well, but they’re going to be good paying jobs in a safe, clean environment.”
To further that point, Egan also shared with the group that information they’ve received has shown that the value added to the soybean basis could push the $.20-.25 range per bushel. A $.20 value add for 21-million bushels comes out to $4.2 million. “We don’t ever want to overpromise and underdeliver, but we’ve anecdotally heard $.10 is low. We think a realistic basis is the $.20-.25 range for the local growers. Right now, if you’re growing beans, you’re shipping them to the West Coast and hoping in today’s marketplace you have a place for them especially this spring and next fall. West Central and CHS have done a good job minimizing the impact to the local grower, but there is going to be a backlog. There are a lot of beans sitting on the West Coast waiting to be shipped somewhere. We think by taking a portion of the local beans, growing and crushing them locally and adding the value here that is a win-win for the local growers. Our three premises when looking at this project overall is how can we improve not just the basis, but the grower’s ability to have a location; to level out some of the volatility in the marketplace and to bring value to the local economy and region. I think we’ve demonstrated all three of those with this project and are pretty excited to move this forward and be back in Crookston today.”
Egan is also working to establish relationships with local industries to become good, engaged community partners. “As the new kid on the block, we want to make sure we’re a good community partner and aren’t engaging in activities that people aren’t aware of. We’ve done an outreach project and made a point of meeting with not just the local American Crystal folks but went to Moorhead and met with their corporate to talk about what we’re doing and opportunities to work together. Whether that’s opportunities down the road for water or treatment facilities or whatever that might be down the road, having those discussions on the front end is a positive showing that we want to be engaged and how do we be a great community partner.”
