In a Nebraska ethanol advocate’s vision of the ideal future, farmers own all the ethanol plants debt-free and their city cousins drive around in vehicles powered exclusively by corn.

Pivotal ethanol events fell well short of the ideal Wednesday for those watching the bankruptcy sale of 16 VeraSun Energy plants, including operations in Ord, Albion and Central City, for $993 million.

The most unsettling part for Albion ethanol advocates? The idled plant will be owned by Valero Energy, the nation’s largest independent oil refiner.

Big Oil has not been ethanol’s best friend over the years and now has a major presence in the state’s renewable fuels industry.

But at least the purchase of seven plants for $477 million by Texas-based Valero  is closure of a kind.

The most unsettling thing for sale watchers in Ord and Central City? Things are still unsettled.

Minnesota-based AgStar Financial Services, already the major debt holder on those two Nebraska plants and four in surrounding states, claimed temporary ownership of them with a bid of $324 million.

In a prepared statement, AgStar said it would keep the plants idled as it works to market them over the next 60 days.

“Basically, we’ve taken the necessary steps to ensure these plants will be sold for fair market value,” said AgStar President Paul DeBriyn.

DeBriyn said there is “ample interest” from potential buyers.

That news confirmed the earlier assessment of Omaha attorney Don Swanson, who represents about 100 aggrieved farmers and other corn suppliers in the trade territory surrounding VeraSun’s Sioux Falls, S.D. headquarters.

“They’re in the business of making loans and they’re not in the business of operating ethanol plants,” Swanson said of AgStar. “So the reasonable expectation is that they will have those plants on the market in the not too distant future.”

Central City farmer Don Reeves is trying to focus on the positive.

“I’m cautiously hopeful that AgStar will get the plant up and running very soon,” Reeves said. “And if that happens, it will be a considerable boon to the community, as opposed to having it shut down.”

VeraSun hit the financial skids in October, as the cost of corn, plummeting oil prices and other factors knocked the bottom out of its bottom line.

Employees have stayed on the payroll since then and all the Nebraska plants are in the “hot idle” status that allows for a quick start-up.

Valero emerged as a bidder on five plants initially and eventually upped that to seven. But some had speculated an operation with $119 billion in 2008 revenues might buy all of VeraSun’s holdings.

Todd Sneller of the Nebraska Ethanol Board said Valero was certainly big enough to be able to use all of VeraSun’s 1.4 billion gallon annual ethanol capacity in 10 percent, government-mandated fuel blends.

But Valero spokesman Bill Day said its leadership stopped short of that grander vision. “We selected the plants we wanted, basically,” he said.

Day wasn’t going to be drawn into any discussions about lingering oil-ethanol tensions.

“We at Valero recognize that ethanol is here to stay as part of the mix of fuels in this country,” he said. “We decided this was a good time to get into the ethanol business. That’s probably where we should leave that.”

Tim Kayton, Albion implement dealer and member of the Boone County Economic Development Board, sounded satisfied with an arrangement that would put the local plant back on target to hit its 110-million gallon annual production capacity.

“I think it makes sense,” Kayton said. “If you’ve got to add ethanol in, due to the mandates, why go out and buy it from somebody else?”

Reach Art Hovey at 473-7223 or at ahovey@journalstar.com.