With a fuel-hungry nation moving towards "miles per bushel," banks step up lending to the ethanol industry. But hot markets require cool lending heads Back in the 1990s, Stephanie Moline recalls, she and Bruce Lauritzen, the owner of her institution, First National Bank of Omaha, drove all over the Midwest scouting for loan possibilities in the fledgling ethanol business. Cold calls were the order of the day. When a foreign-based lender decided to pull back in 1992, First National moved into one of its key deals, and began developing this early niche into a specialty in ethanol.
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