Biofuels buy could bring plant to county

Van Wert independent news

Van Wert County officials are hoping a big biofuels purchase by JetBlue airlines will eventually mean jobs for county residents.

The biofuels purchase by JetBlue is from SG Preston, a company that has been looking at sites in Van Wert, as well as the Ohio community of South Point, Logansport, Indiana, and two additional to-be-announced sites, one in Michigan and one in Ontario, Canada.

According to The New York Times, JetBlue signed an agreement with SG Preston to purchase more than 330 million gallons of renewable fuel over 10 years. According to the article, JetBlue’s biofuels purchase would cover approximately 20 percent of the airline’s annual fuel use at its home base at Kennedy International Airport in New York City.

Randy Delbert LeTang, CEO of SG Preston, has been working with local development officials to bring a biofuels plant to the county. Each of the plants being considered by SG Preston would produce approximately 120 million gallons of renewable diesel and jet fuel annually.

In addition to JetBlue, other airlines have also been looking at renewable fuels, according to the Times. United Airlines has been using a biofuel blend on some of its flights from Los Angeles, while Lufthansa has also said it would buy as much as 8 million gallons of fuel a year from a Colorado-based biofuel developer.

In the Times article, LeTang said the JetBlue contract is another step closer to providing the financial credit needed to build the planned facilities.