Once he began investigating potential locations for his first ethanol manufacturing plant, Jack Alderman knew he was going to site that plant in Nebraska — notwithstanding the fact that he is a Wisconsin-based developer.

Alderman’s plant will be built in Adams and will be known as E Energy Adams.

“The Nebraska business climate is very good,” said Alderman, the chairman of the board of E Energy Adams. “Everything is done to clear roadblocks and to help you build an ethanol plant. It was just the reverse in the other states I initially considered. Everything that could be put against you to slow you down was done.”

Construction on the $100 million facility is scheduled to begin early next year. The plant should be fully operational by the end of 2007 and will use 18 million bushels of corn to produce 50 million gallons of ethanol annually. The plant will employ nearly 40 workers.

Nebraska’s first ethanol plant began production 20 years ago. Since that time, the industry has grown dramatically in the state, creating a new market for nearly one-third of Nebraska’s corn production, creating new jobs in rural communities, and generating local and state tax revenue. There are currently 11 ethanol plants located in the Cornhusker State.

Nebraska is the third largest ethanol-producing state in the nation — and the largest ethanol-producing state west of the Missouri River. The state’s location puts Nebraska in position to serve major ethanol markets in California, the Southwest and the Pacific Northwest.

“Everybody is enthused about ethanol [in Nebraska],” Alderman said. “The state knows it’s good for local farmers and the local economy.”

E Energy Adams is one of numerous ethanol plants that will be built in Nebraska during the next several years. The state and local communities are working with developers to site the plants, which will bring hundreds of jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars in private investment.

The availability of corn, a large cattle supply, easy access to railroads and proximity to natural gas lines are among the reasons why private developers are choosing to build ethanol plants in Nebraska.

In E Energy Adam’s case, about 50 million gallons of ethanol will be shipped a year, Alderman said. This translates into five rail cars a day.

Plus, the state and local governments are tapping their various incentives to boost the projects. All ethanol projects are receiving funds from the state’s Employment and Investment Growth Act, the Invest Nebraska Act and the Community Development Block Grant. They are also receiving tax increment financing.

Aside from the state incentives, the Gage County Board of Supervisors will issue taxable industrial revenue bonds to E-Energy Adams to help with the cost of construction.

“The incentive package certainly makes the plant feasible,” Alderman said. “This is a big endeavor with a lot of money involved. The incentives really help.”

Revis Stephenson, chairman of Advanced BioEnergy LLC, said incentives were a deciding factor to build a plant in Fairmont. The company was considering sites in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa.

“The fact that [state and local officials] were willing to help was important,” Stephenson said.

Construction on the Advanced BioEnergy plant is expected to begin early next year, with a target date for completion of mid-2007. The company will initially employ between 45 and 50 workers, Stephenson said.

When it is fully operational, the plant will annually produce 100 million gallons of ethanol and 320,000 tons of dried distiller grains. The plant will use 36 million bushels of corn a year.

The Greater Wahoo Development Foundation aggressively recruited Florida-based investors to site a dry-mill ethanol plant in Wahoo as a way to give local farmers another market for their corn and add jobs to the region’s economy.

The result is that investors Ram and Suren Ajjarapu have agreed to build the plant, to be called Wahoo Ethanol LLC, on an 85-acre site developed by the foundation. Construction could begin on the $50 million facility by the end of the year.

The city of Wahoo, the state Ethanol Board and Nebraska Public Power District will provide assistance to the project, in addition to the state incentives.

The plant will have the capacity to produce 30 million gallons of ethanol a year and will purchase about 12 million bushels of corn annually. The company will initially employ 30 workers.

Similarly, Val-E-Ethanol LLC will build a $75 million plant near Ord. Several existing ethanol plants in the Midwest own the plant, and there may be an opportunity for a local equity investment in the future, according to the company.

Val-E-Ethanol hopes to have the plant operational by 2007 with 35 employees. The plant will produce 50 million gallons of ethanol annually.