Bismarck Tribune

VeraSun starts up Iowa ethanol plant

BROOKINGS, S.D. (AP) - In the 1989 movie "Field of Dreams," Kevin Costner played a Dyersville, Iowa, farmer who turned his cornfield into a baseball field.

On Friday, South Dakota-based VeraSun Energy Corp. started turning fields of corn into ethanol near the eastern Iowa town.

The operation will employ about 55 workers, make up to 110 million gallons every year and increases the company's total annual capacity to more than 1.4 billion gallons.

The Iowa Renewable Fuels Association says VeraSun's Dyersville plant is the 32nd operating biorefinery in Iowa.

VeraSun also has an ethanol plant in Hankinson, in southeastern North Dakota.