No word on possible shutdown of ethanol plant

PERRY TOWNSHIP - The Greater Ohio Ethanol plant was up and running Monday, but officials aren't saying whether it will stay that way.

Today marks the day attorneys for the five-month-old ethanol plant said they would likely be forced to begin shutting down if they could not work out a deal in their Chapter 11 bankruptcy efforts. By late Monday, neither GO Ethanol founder and president Greg Kruger nor his attorney were returning calls for comment.

Earlier this month, Kruger filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Ohio. On Thursday, he and his attorneys returned to the court in the hopes of gaining court approval for a second interim funding plan that would keep the plant operating for at least the next two weeks. Attorney Tim Hurley said the extra time would allow the plant to continue running while it works out either a sale or reorganize under the bankruptcy protection.

But the plant needs cash to keep running in the interim. That means either Kruger's bankers extending more credit to the plant, or the plant's lone customer, BP, continuing to pay on a daily basis for the ethanol they've been buying from the facility.

Hurley said Thursday he planned to continue negotiating for a possible deal.

Kruger said he has buyers interested in the plant, but wants to keep it running to help broker a deal and to make sure everybody is paid, including his 60 employees.

The ethanol plant began production in June after almost five years of planning, but a design flaw has forced it to use much more water than originally planned. That, along with troubles getting credit in the current market, forced the filing, Kruger said.