INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (AP) — The state’s two ports on the Ohio River and one on Lake Michigan combined to handle 8.1 million tons of cargo in 2011, their best year since 2006, the Ports of Indiana said.

New shipments of ethanol and dried distillers grains (DDGs) combined with gains in limestone, salt and steel cargoes to drive the 5 percent increase in total tonnage shipped through the three ports last year, the statewide port authority that operates the three ports announced last week.

It was the fourth straight year port tonnage has gone up, said Rich Cooper, CEO of Ports of Indiana. “We’ve also seen a significant increase in capital investments by our port companies as they prepare for future growth. This is a good sign for things to come,” he said.

The port at Mount Vernon in southwestern Indiana handled more than half of the state’s total 2011 cargo, 4.7 million tons, a 12 percent increase over 2010 and its highest tonnage since 1994, the port authority said.

Ethanol-related shipments played the biggest role in the Mount Vernon increase. Aventine Renewable Energy had its first full year of operation at the port and other ethanol producers taking advantage of the port’s new rail-to-barge transfer facility. Ethanol shipments were five times as high as the 2010 total and DDGs grew tenfold.

Phil Wilzbacher, the port director at Mount Vernon, said the ethanol and distilling grain shipments brought diversification. “Coal and grain remain our highest volume commodities,” he said.

Burns Harbor on Lake Michigan moved two million tons of cargo in 2011, a 10 percent increase of 2010, behind higher shipments for limestone, steel, fertilizer, coal and salt, the port authority said. After the northern port received $172,000 in federal funds earlier this month, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers plans to conduct maintenance dredging in the port’s main channel.

“It is very important for the channel to be dredged to the appropriate depth so that ships can get in and out of the port,” Peacock told The Times of Munster. “Every inch of dredging equates to 115 tons of cargo that can be carried on a ship.”

The Ohio River port at Jeffersonville handled 1.4 million tons in 2011 behind a 17 percent increase in salt shipments.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The USDA has awarded $25 million to an eastern Iowa plant that will turn garbage into fuel. The plant is being built by Maryland-based Fiberight LLC, which will work with a local landfill to obtain municipal trash that will be turned into cellulosic ethanol.

The 55,000-square foot plant near Blairsburg is expected to produce six million gallons of ethanol when it becomes operational in 2013. The plant is expected to employ 55 people. Fiberight is investing $20 million in the plant. The company also received $2.5 million from the state.

Officials with the Renewable Fuels Assoc. said the plant will be among the first in the nation to produce cellulosic ethanol, which is made from biomass such as garbage, corn stalks or switchgrass, on a commercial scale.

BEULAH, Mich. (AP) — An energy company has discontinued plans to build a wind farm in the northwestern Lower Peninsula.

The Traverse City Record-Eagle and the Ludington Daily News reported Duke Energy Renewables announced the decision last week about the project. It had been planned for Benzie and Manistee counties. Estimates for the project said it would include anywhere between 62-112 turbines.

The company started looking for sites in 2009 and had named the proposed wind farm the Gail Windpower Project. Duke Energy’s original plan included property in four townships but that had been scaled back to two.

Milton Howard, vice president of wind development, said the timing was off to sell electricity generated by the project, and the company said it has wind power projects in other states on which it’s working.

CARTHAGE, Ill. (AP) — The Hancock County Board has approved a proposed hog confinement facility near LaCrosse despite concerns by some residents there is a too high concentration of sow farms in the area.

With the 9-2 vote late Jan. 17, the proposal for the facility goes to the Illinois Department of Agriculture, which must approve or reject the project.

Junction Acres LLC has proposed a 5,600-sow farm, which is expected to produce 2,500 pigs weekly. If the plan is approved, Carthage-based Professional Swine Management would operate the $11 million farm, known as a concentrated animal feeding operation.

Neighbors of the proposed farm have expressed opposition to its construction, citing health and environmental concerns. They pointed out the facility will be the seventh within a four-mile radius.