The City of Rushville, Rush County and the Rush County Economic and Community Development Corporation have announced plans by Rush Renewable Energy, LLC to locate a 60 million gallon ethanol production facility in Rushville. This new business will be a state of the art ethanol manufacturing facility designed to further the growing movement in the U.S. market toward renewable fuels.

A permit for the facility was issued by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management on Nov. 14.

Rushville Mayor Bob Bridges said, “Rush Renewable Energy is the type of ‘new economy’ company that we are seeking to bring to the Rushville community. As a bonus, this region benefits from the local production of one of the cleanest burning renewable energies available in the U.S.”

Rush County Economic and Community Development Corporation Executive Director Greg Griffin added, “One of the great benefits of Rush Renewable Energy is the large local market for the purchase of corn. This facility will consume about 20 million bushels of corn a year and our farmers will be ideally situated for the sales.”

Rush Renewable Energy is being developed by DRS LLC, based in Logansport, and South Bridge LLC, based in Columbia, S.C., in conjunction with Morristown Grain, a Rush County based company.

South Bridge is in the process of developing several ethanol production facilities in economically favorable locations in the U.S. South Bridge Vice President of Business Development Jack Coons remarked that the Rushville location is an outstanding opportunity for South Bridge.

“The Rushville location has excellent availability to corn supply and truck access to the local markets and rail access to the ethanol and feed markets in the Eastern U.S.”

Ethanol is recognized as one of the largest renewable fuel sources available to the U.S. markets. The federal government has set a target of seven billion gallons a year for ethanol fuel. It is anticipated that over the next five to seven years this target could grow to 12 billion gallons per year.

Rush Renewable Energy officials said that the $90 million facility will create jobs for up to 300 construction craftsmen and 35 to 40 full-time positions upon completion.

The site of the facility will be off SR 3 adjacent to the INTAT Precision Inc.