Riverbank plant could create 2,000 jobs. Is a federal agency dropping the ball?
A federal agency is catching heat from a Central Valley congressman, who says red tape is stalling a Riverbank project expected to create 2,000 jobs in the Central Valley.
Rep. Josh Harder, D-Turlock, is calling out the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service for mishandling a request from Aemetis Technologies, a Cupertino-based company planning a state-of-the-art biofuels facility at the former Riverbank ammo plant.
If it can be built, the facility will turn old almond and walnut trees into a clean ethanol product that’s mixed with gasoline for cars and pickup trucks. And valley residents will see less pollution from the burning of non-bearing trees pulled from orchards.
Aemetis hopes to use foreign investments for construction of the $158 million facility, designed to produce 12 million gallons per year, and has applied for approval through a USCIS program. Harder suggested that USCIS lost paperwork and twice has denied the company’s application for an expedited review without much explanation.
Harder said in a news release Thursday the agency needs “to get its act together — we’re talking about nearly 2,000 jobs in a place where we have an unemployment rate higher than the national average.”
He added that Aemetis has gotten the runaround from the federal agency. “We should make it easier, not harder, for companies to create jobs here.”
The immigration service has not responded to the criticism from Harder.
Aemetis is not a newcomer to Stanislaus County. It has operated a biofuel facility in Keyes for eight years. The sugar in corn biomass is used to make conventional ethanol at the Keyes plant off Highway 99.
The proposed Aemetis plant in Riverbank will convert nut shells and orchard waste to make low-carbon cellulosic ethanol. The company has said it plans additional biofuel plants to become a leading manufacturer under California’s mandates for low-carbon fuels.
About 40 employees will work at the Riverbank site. But the new operation is expected to put a 1,000 or more people to work in related businesses, such as trucking orchard waste to the Riverbank facility and transporting the ethanol product.
The biofuel plant, to consist of new and restored buildings, will coexist with other business tenants at the Riverbank Industrial Complex, situated at the Claus and Claribel roads intersection. Aemetis has a long-term lease on the property.
Aemetis applied for the expedited review last December and then received a denial from USCIS in January, which meant the Riverbank project would receive the standard review.
Three months later, the federal agency asked the company for the original application, leading the applicants and Harder to believe the papers had been lost. Though the company was eager to get started in Riverbank, no review had been done on its application in five months, Harder said.
Aemetis sent another request for an expedited review, which was denied in June without an explanation from the agency. Harder, who has talked with White House staff about the matter, said he can’t prove paperwork was lost, but the USCIS has failed to provide timely updates to Aemetis.
Aemetis has jumped through a number of hoops in its journey to establish the Riverbank facility. To meet the qualifications for a $125 million loan from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the company built a demonstration plant in Richland, Wash.., and completed four months of successful operation early last year.
This story was originally published August 29, 2019 at 8:43 AM.