Philosophically, we strongly believe in focusing our efforts on solving America energy challenges, not Europe, and from a practical standpoint it is something that is very difficult to do viably from the Northeast U.S.

That is because of the region high wood material costs, and its lack of port facilities set up for bulk cargo shipping of hammermills. Our plants are not conveniently located near port facilities; we have a lot of inland freight, Niebling says. Where it works in this country is where there is less expensive wood feedstocks, and rail to get the product to a port, one that can stage a large volume for bulk cargo shipping. The Northeast just does not have the circumstances that are well-suited to that, given the current pricing overseas.

Sharron says that with the nature of packing machines a relatively low value versus bulk and weight freight is a big issue, so most wood chipper machines only have the ability to distribute regionally. Being here in western Oregon, our markets are Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada and Idaho and Utah a little bit, but past that point we are not very competitive due to that freight issue.

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