Excess heat from coal plants used in ethanol production

Yesterday's Seeking Alpha makes a brief mention of ethanol producers, starting with Blue Flint Ethanol, that use excess heat from coal-fired energy plants to power their production facilities. Seeking Alpha is a stock watch site and likes the process because the low prices for using the coal-fired heat can be locked in for 20 years. Environmental concerns over using coal to make ethanol are mentioned, but so is the ethanol industry's claim that "clean coal" is not much more polluting than natural gas. Costs for ethanol production need to come down for the biofuel to really take off, Seeking Alpha says, and using the excess heat is one way to do that.
[Source: Seeking Alpha]