Latest News From Ethanol

Michael Regan, EPA administrator, appeared before the House Ag Committee on Wednesday to discuss everything from WOTUS to the farm bill. Here are the highlights that will directly impact producers.

Vilsack said USDA believes there are more options for farmers other than “get big or get out. There’s got to be a system in which the many and most have a fair shot.”

U.S. Farm Report is on the road again this week. This time, Tyne Morgan is at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

In a first for the Golden State, a dairy, a digester and an ethanol plant partner to create renewable energy.

Western United Dairymen tells EPA Administrator that using food for fuel is “folly.”

Corn prices drop on speculation that demand for the grain to make ethanol will decline in the U.S., the world’s top producer.

Discount to gasoline expands on speculation the corn harvest will enable distillers to increase production of the biofuel.

The spread, or price difference, widened 9.42 cents to 83.12 cents a gallon as ethanol dropped with corn, the primary feedstock for the fuel in the U.S.

Larger corn crop is expected to lower costs for distillers, could lead to re-opening shuttered ethanol plants.

World grain markets are at a flex point in a 30-year, boom/bust cycle.

Lower feed costs, higher milk prices and intense competition for dairy markets lie ahead, market analyst says.

The agency says a waiver would do little to reduce corn prices.

NCBA stated that the cattle industry, along with other livestock groups, has suffered a significant economic impact due to the RFS mandate and the drought.

Without government help, lenders are reticent to offer operating money to dairies whose equity has not yet recovered from 2009.

The following information was released by the Nebraska Corn Board:While the drought is having a profound impact on crop production, thanks to ethanol production there is a larger and more flexible corn supply than was available during previous droughts of this magnitude.Today's USDA report confirms what we already knew that the drought's impact on supply and price will be felt by corn consumers around the world, stated Iowa Renewable Fuels Association (IRFA) Executive Director Monte Shaw. Yet, the ag sector has seen droughts before, and it will survive again. This is a time when all of agriculture should pull together. Unfortunately, national livestock trade associations have chosen to politicize the on-going drought as part of their multi-year effort to return corn prices to $2 per bushel.* (see below) At times like this, it is important to look past the rhetoric to the facts. And the fact is that ethanol production provides a benefit to Midwestern livestock producers in many ways.

Drought, soaring feed costs, shrinking credit lines and red ink box in U.S. dairies.

Lawmakers and activist groups are calling on the U.S. government to lower the ethanol quota in the face of a possible domestic and international food crisis.

State’s senators and congressman join request for EPA to scale back Renewable Fuels Standard in wake of the drought.

Commercial-scale plants are being built in the Midwest.

It may not seem logical, but the price of corn in Iowa affects Idaho potatoes and wheat - quite a lot, in fact, according to agricultural economist Michael Swanson.Swanson, who works in the Agricultural Industries Department at Wells Fargo Bank, was in Idaho Falls on Tuesday to discuss the influence of the global and national economies.

Canadian cars are stealing from the mouths of pigs and cattle, according to a new study on the impact of blending ethanol with gasoline.The competition between food and fuel is squeezing the size of the province's livestock sector, says the study - a squeeze that could get even worse if the amount of ethanol used in gasoline increases.

Energy Policy: Congress let the corn-based fuel's tax credits expire when it adjourned, but continuing mandates for its use means pump prices will go even higher and the money saved will be spent elsewhere.Subsidies for ethanol expired over the weekend, ironically just days before the Iowa caucuses.In their 33 years of existence, ethanol subsidies, the original poster child for crony capitalism, with an estimated cost of at least $45 billion and an annual price tag in recent years of $6 billion, have been a political sacred cow, letting farm state politicians bring home the bacon in exchange for generous campaign contributions.

With the subsidies set to expire Dec. 31, the California senator is warning colleagues to be on the lookout for bills seeking to extend them.

The town of Seymour, Iowa, has lost one-third of its population over the past three decades, and John Flood, who manages a local grain elevator, figures that one of the causes was a federal program that took large swaths of Wayne County cropland out of production. "You had all that land idled and no one doing anything with it," he said.

The impact of ethanol on feed prices isn't what you might think.

New Farm Journal series explores ag's role in the crisis