NEWS RELEASE WASHINGTON, D.C.

Contact: Wayne Maloney (202) 690-0498

USDA OFFICIALS WRAP UP THREE STATE RENEWABLE ENERGY AND AG TOUR

     ALBERT LEA, Minn., August 10, 2006--Agriculture Under Secretary for Rural Development Thomas Dorr and other USDA officials wrapped up a tour of community, renewable energy and economic investments in South Dakota, Iowa and Minnesota supported with funding provided by Rural Development and other USDA agencies . The tour started in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and stopped in communities including Sioux Center, Iowa; Worthington, Heron, St. James, Blue Earth and Albert Lea, Minnesota (view the tour photo gallery).

     "Sioux Falls was the perfect place to start this tour," said Dorr. "Some say that rural America is dying on the vine. It's not, and the Sioux Falls area is a perfect example." On Tuesday, which marked the first anniversary of President Bush's signing of the Energy Policy Act, Dorr and the group traveled to Sioux Center, Iowa, where much of the day was spent touring renewable energy projects including a wind farm and Siouxland Energy and Livestock Cooperative, which is owned by almost 400 farmer-members and produces 25 million gallons of ethanol a year. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns joined the tour at a luncheon event where he announced the award of over $9 million in Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency loan guarantees and grants to a dozen entities in three states including Iowa. In his speech, the Secretary acknowledged Rural Development programs and their role in advancing energy policy: "Through Rural Development programs, as well as other initiatives throughout USDA, we're making a difference in the way we power our nation."

     Johanns discussed the President's Advanced Energy Initiative, which calls for a change in the way America provides for its energy needs. In October, in St. Louis, USDA and the Department of Energy will co-host an event designed to focus on ways to implement the goals of the initiative "Advancing Renewable Energy: An American Rural Renaissance."

     Later in the day Dorr and the group toured a hospital in Orange City and then traveled to Worthington, Minnesota, where per capita income and earnings per job have increased by over 7 percent and the unemployment rate is almost a full percentage point below the state average. There they toured a biomedicine laboratory and educational center before traveling to Heron to tour a coal-fired ethanol plant construction site. In the afternoon, Dorr and Minnesota Rural Development State Director Steve Wenzel participated in a groundbreaking ceremony for a new hospital in St. James, Minnesota and then traveled to Albert Lea, home of the Soymore Biodiesel and Agra-Resources Cooperative EXOL ethanol plants. They toured the plants and a children's center funded with Rural Development support.

     Also highlighted throughout the tour were a vast array of conservation practices and programs that are economically viable and contribute to healthy soils and water for more productive lands. Through USDA programs such as the Wetlands Reserve Program, Conservation Reserve Program and the Conservation Security Program, filter strips, riparian forest buffers, grassland waterways and wetlands have improved soils and cleansed waterways. Windbreaks have reduced wind erosion, conserved energy and reduced heating bills. Muilenburg Farms in Maurice, Iowa, constructed a solid settling system with help from the Environmental Quality Incentives Program to reduce solid-waste runoff and lower fertilizer costs. Each one of these practices and programs has contributed to a healthy watershed and more productive lands shared by the entire community.

     Dorr said, "We've seen health care, renewable energy, conservation programs, manufacturing, a rural water system, child care, biomedicine, and we could have added more had time permitted. If we did this tour in some other part of the country, the spectrum of projects would change but the basic message would be the same. Rural America is full of opportunities. Working together we can make good things happen. The key ingredients are vision and entrepreneurial initiative."

     "Recently, there has been criticism of America's rural policy," Dorr said. "Some have gone so far as to say we don't have one. But the facts tell a different story, Rural America is on the upswing, a place that more Americans want to live in, a place to raise families ... a place with a future, a place 'to live locally and accomplish globally'".

     USDA Rural Development's mission is to increase economic opportunity and improve the quality of life in rural communities. As a venture capital entity, Rural Development has invested over $72 billion since the beginning of the Bush Administration to provide equity and technical assistance to finance and foster growth in homeownership, business development, and critical community and technology infrastructure. Over 1.2 million jobs have been created or saved through these investments. Further information on rural programs is available at a local USDA Rural Development office or by visiting USDA's web site at http://www.rurdev.usda.gov. Additional information about the Advancing Renewable Energy Conference is available at http://www.AdvancingRenewableEnergy.com.

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