Wayne Maloney (202) 690-0498

## **USDA OFFICIALS WRAP UP THREE STATE RENEWABLE ENERGY AND AG TOUR** 

ALBERT LEA, Minnesota, 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.

"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]{.underline} 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](http://www.rurdev.usda.gov/). Additional
information about the Advancing Renewable Energy Conference is available
at
[http://www.AdvancingRenewableEnergy.com](http://www.advancingrenewableenergy.com/).

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