This district is home to Little Falls-based Central MN Renewables, a renewable chemicals manufacturer which has the first modern commercial plant in the US to produce bio-based n-butanol and acetone.

The industry is also well represented by 21 vendor companies that support the industry.

Among the services these vendor companies provide the ethanol industry include: grain storage manufacturing, tank and vessel cleaning, construction services, valve control and measurement, engineering solutions, automation programming, lab solutions testing, equity investment services, and transportation of fuel and corn oil.

The companies that offer these services include Premium Plant Services, Compeer Financial, Bolton & Menk, GSI Group, Nooter Construction, Pace Analytical, Novaspect, Beaudry Oil & Propane and Wayne Transports.

In addition to industry related companies, there are 38 stations within this district that offer higher ethanol blended gasoline such as E15, E30, and E85.

Many of these stations, which include brands like Kwik Trip, Raceway, SuperAmerica, Coborns, Holiday and Minnoco, made significant investments over the past 12 months to install new tanks and dispensers to offer the aforementioned blends of ethanol. Those investments in turn boosted the economy in the eighth congressional district.