Oregon Public Broadcasting

A Colorado-based company is planning to build a $300 million commercial cellulosic ethanol plant in Boardman that would produce fuel from trees and farm waste by 2014.

This morning, ZeaChem announced its plans along with a $233 million loan guarantee from the U.S Department of Agriculture that will help get the project off the ground.

Image courtesy ZeaChem

Agriculture Undersecretary Dallas Tonsager said his agency is supporting the project as part of a larger goal to produce 16 million gallons of biofuel nationwide by 2022.

“Strategically across the United States a lot of the biofuels industry today produced is based on corn primarily in the Midwest and northern plains and other parts of the country. We want to diversify it. We want to see it produced in other parts of the country and we want to see every part of this country benefit from the potential of growing biofuels and we think strategically this is a great place for it," Tonsager said.

If all goes according to plan, ZeaChem’s biorefinery will be capable of producing up to 25 million gallons of biofuel a year by 2014.

The company expects the project to create more than 100 construction jobs and 65 long-term positions.

(Read more from Cassandra Profita at her Ecotrope blog.)