Capt Worley PE
Run silent, run deep
By Paul A. Eisenstein, The Detroit Bureau
The EPA may shift corn away from ethanol use to reduce demand on drought-impacted farms.
Only months ago, the EPA was pressing hard to expand the use of ethanol in the nation’s gasoline supply, but in the wake of this summer’s fierce drought, the agency may soon reverse course and actually trim back because of shortages of corn used to produce the renewable fuel.
Sen. Orrin Hatch, an influential Utah Republican, this week urged the EPA to curb ethanol requirements, as have 200 members of the House and the governors of eight corn-producing states. Under a 2007 law signed by former President George W. Bush, 15.2 billion gallons of ethanol would need to be used this year, with the plan to more than double that by 2022.
But the viability of that plan came under sharp inspection when, yesterday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture forecast a sharp decline in farm grain output predicting next year’s global corn stockpiles will 5.4 percent – to the lowest levels in 39 years. The USDA warned that only 23 percent of American corn crop yields are in “good” or “excellent” shape compared with 70 percent last year.
That sent prices for corn spiraling upward. Hatch and others are hoping that by at least reducing the potential demand for corn stocks for fuel use demand prices may level off – which could, in turn, prevent a spiral driving up overall U.S. inflation rates.
“In the face of corn shortages and escalating prices brought on by wide-spread droughts throughout the United States, I urge you to exercise your waiver authority to modify the corn-ethanol requirements for the Renewable Fuel Standards,” Hatch wrote in a letter to EPA administrator Lisa Jackson.
more at link....
/>http://bottomline.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/10/12/14399762-epa-may-slash-use-of-ethanol-in-gasoline-as-corn-crop-wilts?lite
The EPA may shift corn away from ethanol use to reduce demand on drought-impacted farms.
Only months ago, the EPA was pressing hard to expand the use of ethanol in the nation’s gasoline supply, but in the wake of this summer’s fierce drought, the agency may soon reverse course and actually trim back because of shortages of corn used to produce the renewable fuel.
Sen. Orrin Hatch, an influential Utah Republican, this week urged the EPA to curb ethanol requirements, as have 200 members of the House and the governors of eight corn-producing states. Under a 2007 law signed by former President George W. Bush, 15.2 billion gallons of ethanol would need to be used this year, with the plan to more than double that by 2022.
But the viability of that plan came under sharp inspection when, yesterday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture forecast a sharp decline in farm grain output predicting next year’s global corn stockpiles will 5.4 percent – to the lowest levels in 39 years. The USDA warned that only 23 percent of American corn crop yields are in “good” or “excellent” shape compared with 70 percent last year.
That sent prices for corn spiraling upward. Hatch and others are hoping that by at least reducing the potential demand for corn stocks for fuel use demand prices may level off – which could, in turn, prevent a spiral driving up overall U.S. inflation rates.
“In the face of corn shortages and escalating prices brought on by wide-spread droughts throughout the United States, I urge you to exercise your waiver authority to modify the corn-ethanol requirements for the Renewable Fuel Standards,” Hatch wrote in a letter to EPA administrator Lisa Jackson.
more at link....
/>http://bottomline.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/10/12/14399762-epa-may-slash-use-of-ethanol-in-gasoline-as-corn-crop-wilts?lite
