BUSINESS JOURNAL

Poet report details company's economic impact

Sioux Falls Business Journal

Sioux Falls-based Poet generated $13.5 billion in sales for U.S. businesses last year, according to a new economic impact study that looked at the company’s contributions to national economic and job growth.

Poet has studied its own economic impact.

It found the ethanol producer added $5.4 billion in national gross domestic product last year and supported nearly 40,000 jobs. That contributed $3.1 billion in income to U.S. families.

“Ethanol provides us the means to produce our own clean fuel and keep the enormous economic benefits within America’s borders,” POET CEO Jeff Lautt said. “The impact flows from the plants to farmers, communities, throughout the states in which they operate and across the nation.”

Poet’s Sioux Falls corporate headquarters employs 450 people, and its six South Dakota ethanol plants employ 242 people. The company’s combined ethanol manufacturing and administrative operations generate $182 million of income for South Dakotans.

In addition, the report cites Poet's impact on reducing foreign oil dependence.  According to the study, POET’s production of 1.7 billion gallons of ethanol displaces nearly 1.2 billion gallons of gasoline, which requires 61 million barrels of crude oil to produce. This displacement potentially reduces the outflow of money to foreign producers of oil by nearly $5.5 billion.