July 1, 2013-UPDATE: The Governor had a change of heart and now the Posey County Council has issued the necessary bonds and the county will now host a company that has ties to the Afghanistan Taliban which is proven to use their product to kill and maim American troops.
May 17, 2013- The following is a press release issued today in response to the decision by Governor Mike Pence to stop State financial support for a Pakistani company implicated in supplying explosive materials used against American troops in Afghanistan.
This internet photo shows a Fatima fertilizer plant as it exists in Pakistan. Today, indiana Governor, Mike Pence stopped plans by Posey County economic development officials to build what they called a $2 billion plant to make fertilizer. Valley Watch objected to the siting of the facility as being in too close proximity to another explosive plant, the second largest ethanol plant in the US, operated by Aventine Renewable Energy.
Valley Watch applauds the decision by Indiana Governor Mike Pence to stop State financial support to the Pakistani company who was trying to build a giant fertilizer plant in Posey County. Governor Pence wisely discerned that the widely reported connection between the company and the manufacture of Improvised Explosive Devices in Afghanistan was more than Hoosier veterans should have to put up with just for some promised jobs.
Valley Watch had previously called for a “moratorium” on the construction of new Indiana fertilizer manufacturers until adequate safety assessments could be in place to determine the feasibility of locating such facilities so near to other facilities that have severe explosive potential. In the case of Posey County, it was proposed that Fatima be placed adjacent to the second largest ethanol plant in the US. The combined plants’ potential for a major catastrophe needed better assessment that the diligence given by local economic development officials who seemed nearly overwhelmed by their support for Fatima.
Valley Watch suggests that in the future, decisions like this should be given more public scrutiny and transparency before dangerous and essentially unvetted proposals are given the green light. Citizens of southwest Indiana deserve more from self appointed economic development regimes.
The Fatima proposal would have been build just east of Aventine’s second largest ethanol plant in the US as shown here in this file photo from 2011. © John Blair