By MIKE SALINERO | The Tampa Tribune
Published: January 2, 2011
Updated: 01/02/2011 05:34 pm
APOLLO BEACH - Two years after plans fell through for an ethanol plant at the Port of Tampa, another biofuels operation is proposed for a former fish farm in south Hillsborough County.
Carlos Macho, owner of Mad Dog Mulching in Tampa, said he and partner Jason Davis want to build the ethanol plant on an 120-acre site just north of Big Bend Road, between U.S. 41 and the Seaboard Coast Line railroad tracks. Macho estimates the plant would employ 200-250 people.
"Hopefully by this time next year we should be running if God helps us," Macho said last week as he and Davis were helping clear brush from the land in preparation for topographical mapping.
The project is just getting off the ground. Macho said he hopes to have purchased the land by the end of March. County records show that Hung Mai, a civil engineer, pulled a permit last week to clear undergrowth on the land. Mai could not be reached for comment.
"This is sort of in the due diligence phase," said Peter Aloutto, director of the county Planning and Growth Management Department, which issued the permit. "We've not seen a site development plan. This is still in the look-see stage."
Macho and Davis also got a permit from the county's Environmental Protection Commission on Dec. 21 that allows them to fill hundreds of old fish ponds. Normally, developers must mitigate wetlands they destroy by building another wetland or buying credits in a wetlands mitigation bank. The EPC permit will exempt the plant from that requirement.
Macho said the plant would consume 40 million bushels of corn a year. He declined to discuss how much the plant would cost to construct or where he is getting financing.
"I need 210,000 acres in the state of Florida to grow corn," Macho said. "If I can get the farmers in the state to get involved, I could create 5,000 jobs. We really would like to expand even bigger."
The plant is not receiving any tax breaks or other incentives, said Gene Gray, county economic development director.
"We've had a small amount of interaction on the permitting side," Gray said, "but that's the extent of our involvement at this point."
The partners face challenges. Questions have arisen about whether ethanol is really an environmentally friendly remedy for the nation's oil addiction. Many environmentalists say the energy consumption it takes to grow the corn, transport it, and then turn it into ethanol cancels any energy savings.
But the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, under pressure from the farm lobby and members of Congress, is considering allowing the amount of ethanol in gasoline to rise from the current 10 percent to 15 percent for cars made in 2007 and afterwards. A spokeswoman said Thursday the EPA is awaiting data from the Department of Energy on ethanol's fuel efficiency and should make a decision early this year.
