• ST. LOUIS (AP) -- A central Missouri ethanol plant is suspending production Feb. 1, saying the extended drought has made it almost impossible to get enough corn to make the alternative fuel, a plant spokesman said Friday.
• POET Biorefining plans to keep its Macon facility open and all 44 employees will keep working, spokesman Matt Merritt said. The company plans to move ahead with $14.5 million in plant upgrades, and workers will use the down time to help with some of the upgrades.
• The drought that has dragged on since last spring has taken a toll on corn, and Missouri has been hit hard.
• The state isn't alone. The U.S. Department of Agriculture released a report earlier this month showing that for the 2012 growing season, farmers harvested 10.8 billion bushels of corn, less than three-fourths of what the agency predicted last spring.
• "There's just really no corn in the immediate (Macon) area available," Merritt said. Shipping in corn from elsewhere wasn't an option because of the cost.
• "It proved to be difficult to find that corn at a competitive price," Merritt said.
• President Barack Obama visited the Macon plant in April 2010 as part of a tour of three corn-growing states -- Illinois, Missouri and Iowa. During that tour, the president reaffirmed the goal of tripling U.S. ethanol production in 12 years, in part to make the nation less dependent on foreign oil.
• Merritt said POET will continue to purchase corn for future use when it becomes available. There is no timetable for when production will resume.
• POET operates 27 plants in seven states and is based in Sioux Falls, S.D. The Macon plant has been in operation since 2000.
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