UPDATE 1-Poet cancels Minn. ethanol plant over permitting

(adds details about plans on track for other plants)

NEW YORK, May 2 (Reuters) - Poet, the top U.S. ethanol distiller, said on Friday that permitting delays have forced it to cancel building a plant near Glenville, Minnesota.

"Permitting has delayed the project by more than a year and has caused a significant amount of additional costs making it less attractive than other potential projects in the Eastern Corn Belt," Poet said in a statement about plant. It had been expected to distill 65 to 70 million gallons of the alternative fuel per year.

With food prices soaring, U.S. ethanol has suffered a backlash in public opinion. Politicians blame the alternative fuel for pushing corn and other grains to record highs.

Late last year, U.S. President George W. Bush signed a law mandating a five-fold increase in blending of alternative fuels like ethanol into gasoline by 2022. The law briefly pushed up margins for making the fuel, but profits soon fell and have stayed lower.

Texas last week asked the Environmental Protection Agency to waive half of its renewable fuel standard for the alternative fuel.

Poet said the decision had nothing to do with the backlash or poor margins. "Our decision was completely based on permitting," spokesman Nathan Shock said in an interview.

Poet plans to open three more distilleries before the end of the year and has opened three plants in Indiana and Ohio over the last seven months.

(Reporting by Timothy Gardner; Editing by David Gregorio)