The Vander Griend brothers built the first licensed fuel-alcohol still, and Congress passed a subsidy to encourage ethanol industry development.

Congress passed the Energy Tax Act, resulting in a 40-cent-per-gallon ethanol subsidy. That same year, Dennis Vander Griend, a South Dakota State University student who's now an ICM process engineer, built his first distillation columns (nicknamed "Old Blue" because of its brightly hued paint). His brother Dave, today ICM's President and CEO, was a skilled welder, and he acted as Dennis's right-hand man in the still's fabrication.