No. 6: Company vows to bring ethanol plant to Ozarks

Gulfstream Bioflex Energy LLC of Mount Vernon unveiled plans for the $185 million plant in August, just weeks after Blunt signed legislation requiring gasoline sold in Missouri to contain 10 percent ethanol by Jan. 1, 2008.

GBE’s plans weren’t well received by surrounding property owners, who sued the company in Webster County Circuit Court to block the plant’s construction.

As the legal battle was heating up, SBJ reported on CEO Greg Wilmoth’s familial connection to the governor and Vice President Charles Luna’s bankruptcy woes in the early 1990s.

Wilmoth, who is a first cousin once-removed to Blunt, said no member of the governor’s family had any personal or financial involvement in GBE, which plans to build three ethanol plants in Missouri. Blunt’s father, Roy, is a southwest Missouri congressman, and his brother, Andy, is a Jefferson City lobbyist who has previously invested in Missouri’s growing ethanol industry.

A Blunt spokesman said the governor did not refer any investors to GBE, which is financing the plants with an estimated $600 million raised through a combination of private equity groups, senior lenders and subordinated lenders. GBE also is seeking government incentives from the state.

GBE officers Wilmoth, Luna and Jeff Negre have all worked in the transportation and fuel distribution business. Negre is president of Boomerang Transportation trucking firm in Mount Vernon, and Luna is a businessman in Ozark County.

Luna was forced into bankruptcy in 1993, when a long list of creditors – mainly banks, fuel suppliers and equipment-leasing companies – launched an involuntary Chapter 7 bankruptcy case against him that lasted three years.

Questions also were raised about Luna’s relationship to a defunct farmers’ cooperative whose founder, Russell F. Phillips, was indicted for securities fraud and racketeering. Prosecutors accused Phillips of conspiring to have Luna killed in the late 1970s, but a St. Louis jury ultimately acquitted Phillips.

GBE attorneys later downplayed Luna’s involvement in the new plant, suggesting he was only an engineering consultant with no ownership in the company. Luna, however, has been identified as the company’s vice president in recent news reports.

In October, GBE began drilling test wells at the 252-acre plant site east of Rogersville to determine if an aquifer would be able to supply the 880 gallons of water per minute needed for ethanol production.

A temporary restraining order prohibiting work at the site expired in late October, allowing drilling to resume. But earlier this month, a Boone County judge reinstated the restraining order through early March, when GBE and the plant opponents will go to trial.

Rogersville resident Gary Rogers said he and fellow plaintiffs in the suit are confident they can prove the plant would constitute an “unreasonable usage” of groundwater.

“We’re looking forward to March 6 … as a chance to put it to bed once and for all,” said Rogers, a broker with The Kingsley Group in Springfield.

Emerging Ethanol

May 12: Gulfstream Bioflex Energy LLC is created and registered with the Missouri secretary of state’s office.

Aug. 23: Webster County Commission learns of GBE’s plan to build a $185 million ethanol plant east of Rogersville and appoints a groundwater impact committee.

Aug. 30: Groundwater impact committee meets with GBE CEO Greg Wilmoth and vice presidents Charles Luna and Jeff Negre.

Sept. 10: More than 400 people attend a public meeting at Fordland High School about the proposed ethanol plant.

Oct. 2: Property owners concerned about proposed plant’s impact on groundwater supply file suit against GBE in Webster County Circuit Court.

Oct. 6: GBE begins drilling test wells at plant site.

Oct. 8: Groundwater impact committee posts its findings on University of Missouri Extension Web site.

Oct. 12: Judge grants plaintiffs’ request for a temporary restraining order halting drilling at plant site.

Oct. 18: Restraining order expires after GBE’s attorneys file motion for change of judge.

Oct. 19: Drilling resumes at plant site.

Dec. 12: GBE and plant opponents spend six hours in court hearing about restraining order.

Dec. 13: Judge reinstates temporary restraining order until March trial date.

March 6, 2007: Court hearing scheduled on permanent injunction barring construction of the plant.