Virginian ethanol plant to be sold off by Hopewell officials

A bioenergy plant in Hopewell, Virginia is to be auctioned off by city officials in order to recoup nearly $2 million (€1.5 million) in unpaid taxes.

Hopewell City Council voted to begin a tax sale of the reported $150 million Osage BioEnergy-owned facility which closed in 2011 without producing a drop of ethanol.

City attorney David Fratarcangelo believes the auction will take place within ‘the first two months of 2013’ once formal notification of the lawsuit has been made to Osage and an appraisal carried out.

‘It is not in the city's best interest to just let the plant sit there,’ says vice mayor Wayne Walton. ‘We thought that would be good to bring this to some kind of resolution.’

The facility was expected to produce around 65 million gallons of ethanol a year. Two reasons the project never really got going included a struggle to reach approved air quality controls and an explosion that caused multiple fires after some equipment malfunctioned.