Biofuel boom side affects

The Business Record here in Des Moines just put out a nice article about the ancillary businesses being started surrounding the biofuel core. 

A handful of businesses have started here recently to support biofuel production, and others are planning to relocate to the area to be closer to their customers and potential employees. In addition, at least one local company is finding a niche market in providing professional services for the state's growing renewable fuels industry.

"The ethanol plants need legal services, risk management services and that sort of thing, and a lot of that work is handled in cities like Des Moines," Shaw said. "You might see new companies offering these services, or companies that already exist are creating new products for this industry."

Yes!  It's not simply the producers of the fuel.  I've already written about the fact that the humans required to run a 100 million gallon ethanol operation are pretty slim.  I've read as little as 13 people can run an operation of that size.

However, it's the 100 loads of corn required per day, the software infrastructure needed, the fuel hauling trucks, tanker cars, logistics planning, consulting, etc. that will explode out the biofuel business growth geometrically. 

This is the key area where Iowa needs to focus its governmental support and leadership.  The plants will continue to come on line for years to come.  Let's encourage a little Silicon Valley style investment boom and harvest this incredible talent out of U of I and ISU...in our own little corner of the world we call Ethanol Alley.