The grape harvest is a manic time at SenecaBioEnergy because the company that started out tomake biodiesel from corn, soybeans and grape seedsis now focusing on its most immediate revenuestream, grape seed oil for the kitchen — not the car.

Tons of pomace — the stuff left over after yousqueeze grapes to get juice to make wine — arriveevery day at the company’s warehouse on thegrounds of the former Seneca Army Depot in Romu-lus, Seneca County.

Those daily shipments, about 40 tons a day fromabout 20 wineries in the Finger Lakes, are the firststep in a circle of sustainability that will put anotherlocal product on the shelves of wineries and storesmade from the stuff they throw away.

Michael Coia, CEO of Seneca BioEnergy, watchedrecently as grape seeds fell into a hopper at the end ofa process that separates the seeds from the skins,stems and leaves. He said he sees many opportuni-ties in the process that turns agricultural discardsinto useful products and sustainable businesses,such as the production of biofuel, live stock feed,bedding for dairy cows and fertilizer for farms.

What is needed to spur his plan is funding from thestate through the Finger Lakes Regional EconomicDevelopment Council to help leverage financing forinfrastructure and equipment.

“We philosophically decided it was importantfrom the company’s position to link together environ-mental sustainability, renewable energy and agricul-tural processing,” said Coia, an environmental engi-neer. “We think those tenets are important to an

Democrat and Chronicle Sunday, October 7, 2012

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Hey, there’s apresidential campaign going on here.

Unlike New York, where the out-come on Nov. 6 is a given, Florida is abattleground state — actually it’s thebattleground state because of its size —with the latest Tampa Bay Times/MiamiHerald poll showing a virtual tie be-tween Barack Obama and Mitt Romney.

As a result, political ads abound onTV, in the newspapers, on websites.After Wednesday night’s debate — boththe Times and Herald described Oba-ma’s performance as flat but stoppedshort of declaring Romney the victor —the president’s campaign launched aTV ad asking, “Why won’t Romneylevel with us about his tax plan?”

I’m worried about Romney’s taxplan, too. I’m also worried about

where’s Obama’s fiscal policies aretaking us. We simply can’t afford anincrease in federal borrowing thatamounts to $55,000 per household overthe next four years, as has occurredover the past four, according to Stan-ford University’s Hoover Institution.Romney was right to take the presidentto task over his failed promise to cutthe deficit in half.

But can we believe Romney, either,when it comes to taxes and spending?

Obama was right to question’s Rom-ney’s arithmetic. He has said he won’tgo for even $1 of tax increases in ex-change for $10 of spending cuts, a stri-dent position that puts Tea Party poli-tics above national interest. Romneyseems to be putting almost all of hiseggs in the basket of economic growthto cut the deficit, though robust growthin the U.S. might still be years away.

Frankly, after listening to the debate,I don’t believe either candidate has acredible plan to balance the budget andreduce the debt.

I’ve written on more than one occa-sion that Obama let the country downwhen he failed to embrace the debt-and deficit-cutting recommendations ofthe Simpson-Bowles commission. Butin the height of hypocrisy, Romney’s

running mate, Paul Ryan, had the gallto criticize the president when, as amember of the Simpson-Bowles panel,Ryan voted against the final report.

The thing is, there are plans outthere to effectively tackle this criticalproblem. I encourage you to go towww.taxpayers.org, the website of thenonpartisan budget watchdog Taxpay-ers for Common Sense, and read itsreport “Sliding Past Sequestration,”which lays out detailed plans for reduc-ing federal spending without taking ameatcleaver approach.

The report is likely to irritate bothconservatives and liberals, but that’sthe point. Shared sacrifice is needed,whether it’s certain “green” programsfavored by Obama or certain defenseprograms favored by Romney.

Obama, Romney lack credible economic plans

SSINK@DemocratandChronicle.com

SteveSinkBUSINESS EDITOR

Seneca BioEnergy project one of several promoted byregional council as potential engines for job growth

Jeffrey BlackwellStaff writer

See SEEDS, Page 5E

The Finger Lakes Grape Seed Oil and its sister company Seneca BioEnergy take pomace, top left photo, and separate out the grapeseeds, top right, that are then squeezed to make bottles of grape seed oil, at right. PHOTOS BY JEFFREY BLACKWELL/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

INNOVATION IN THE FINGER LAKES

TRANSFORMATIVE PROJECTS

The Finger Lakes Regional Economic Devel-opment Council identified the Seneca BioFuelproject as one of several “transformational”projects in the region and is asking the statefor funding to assist the project.

Other projects include efforts to sustain anddevelop nanotechnology, like the work beingdone at the Smart System Technology & Com-mercialization Center in Canandaigua and theScience Technology and Advanced Manu-facturing Park in Geneseo.

Next week: We look at some of the waysthat the council suggests the state can supportsmall business in our region.

DIGITAL EXTRAS

Click in this story at RochesterNext.com foran online video and photo gallery of SenecaBioEnergy.

SENECA ARMY DEPOT

The former U.S. Army depot was built in 1941for munitions storage and disposal. It wasclosed in 2000 and transferred to the SenecaCounty Industrial Development Agency. Itoccupied more than 10,000 acres of buildings,warehouse, munitions “igloos” storage bunk-ers, an airport and a rail system that feeds theentire depot.

SEEDS OFTRANSFORMATION