Numbers from the government show ethanol production is down slightly during the first six months of the year, but consumption of the green fuel was up during the same period. Ethanol Producer Magazine reports U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) figures show production at 6.419 billion gallons of ethanol, slightly off from the 6.893 billion gallons for the same period a year earlier. The upside is consumers seem to be using more ethanol.

During the first half of the year, the U.S. consumed 6.482 billion gallons of ethanol, up from 6.407 billion gallons during the first six months of last year.

Net imports for June were -170,000 barrels, compared to -535,000 barrels in May. During the first half of 2013, net imports measured -2.801 million barrels, compared to -8.375 million barrels for the same period of 2012.

The most recent ethanol production numbers from Sept. 20 show an average of 832,000 barrels per day.