Rani Bhattacharyya from the University of Minnesota Extension shared the Economic Impact study completed by Extension with local leaders and farmers on Tuesday morning. The economic impact study is a three-pronged source of activity including Epitome Energy, their partners, and the employees explained Bhattacharyya. “When we conduct Economic Impact Analysis, we group the impacts into three different categories,” Bhattacharyya. “The first is the direct impact or output. In this case, it would be the construction of the facility or the operation of the facility here in Crookston. Which is a big drop in the economic bucket so to speak. Then you have the indirect impact which comes from the spending of suppliers within the supply chain for goods and services they use to produce the product or service generated by the biodiesel facility and crush plant. The third category is the induced impact that measures the economic impact of spending by people employed in the supply chain and how their dollars roll around in the local economy. Sometimes they buy healthcare, go out for dinner, it tracks those aspects of economic impact. The total economic impact number would include all three aspects of this analysis.”
The construction phase of Epitome Energy, which CEO Dennis Egan forecasted to begin in Spring 2021, would provide for hundreds of jobs in addition to significant economic activity says, Bhattacharyya. “For the initial construction of the plant, the economic impact in Polk County is estimated to be $134 million,” said Bhattacharyya. “That includes $43.1 million in labor income that will support 820 jobs. The direct output or that big drop in the bucket I talked about would be $106.7. $35.1 million of which would go to labor income and directly support 590 jobs.”
The operation of the biodiesel facility and crush plant could produce more than $17.2 million in labor income to Polk County on an annual basis by supporting more than 300 jobs within the County. “For the operation of the plant, our model estimated that the total economic activity for one year would include $322.8 million,” said Bhattacharyya. “Labor income would be $17.2 million, which would support 330 new jobs. Soybean purchases that would be used to support the facility over one year of operation would support 180 jobs and include $58.9 million in farm-related output. This would also support $12.2 million in labor income.”
Epitome Energy’s crush plant and biodiesel facility would also add economic activity throughout an 11-county area in Northwest Minnesota. “On the 11-county area in Northwest Minnesota, we estimate the total economic impact would be $323.9 million supporting 330 new jobs in the region,” said Bhattacharyya. “Soybean purchases for the operation of the facility in the region would support 980 farm-related jobs with $257.8 million in farm-related output and $67.3 million in farm related income.”
Another benefit to the plant will be the value basis to soybeans in Polk County which Egan said Tuesday he expects could be in the $.20-.25 range. That is significant because according to market prices for October and November 2018, soybeans delivered in Mankato had a cash price of $.76 more than in Crookston according to the Extension report.
[embeddoc url=”https://kroxam.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Epitome-Energy-Economic-Impact-Analysis.pdf” download=”all”]
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