Officials described the reversal as unusual. County Commissioner John Rodstrom Jr., whose vote Tuesday helped tip the scales, said he recalled only one other re-ranking in his 17 years on county panels.
The contract snag has delayed Broward’s push to turn Port Everglades into an ethanol hub at a time when Florida has mandated all gasoline contain 10 percent ethanol by 2010. Florida does not make ethanol, so it must bring it from other states and countries.
Magellan, known for work on petroleum pipelines and terminals, plans to invest at least $80 million at Port Everglades to tear down former molasses tanks and build larger storage to handle gas, diesel and ethanol. It will provide tanks for an initial 350,000 barrels of ethanol but can expand space for the bio-fuel as demand rises, said Bruce Heine, director of government and media affairs.
Cepemar had offered to spend at least $35 million to fix and expand tanks to handle mainly ethanol, a biofuel it said would not displace products imported by other port clients.
Once a contract is negotiated, the winner is expected to take at least a year to develop the fuel storage project, with operations not likely before mid-2011.