“Policy Risks and Consequences for the Biofuels Industry” will be one of the topics addressed during a Farm Foundation conference entitled “Transition to a Bioeconomy: Risks, Infrastructure and Industry Evolution” June 24-25 in Berkeley, California.
Seth Meyer with the University of Missouri’s Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute (FAPRI) will talk about some of the findings in a new report that presents 500 different scenarios based on possible weather, production and other market influences.
Meyer says they found that the two main important factors in any scenario are the price of oil and feedstock production.
“We did this in January and yet we’ve seen oil prices exceed most people’s expectations and that changes the dynamics of which policies are important,” Meyer said. “And then you add to that an unexpected change in (corn) yields and it changes which policies are important yet again.”
Generally speaking, if oil prices are high and production is normal, the Renewable Fuels Standard for corn ethanol is less important. “When we start getting a short crop, those mandates all of the sudden become very binding. It’s a very complicated question,” said Meyer.
When it comes to the blender’s credit, Meyer says that again depends on the situation. “If oil prices would moderate, the mandates would be driving production.”
Listen to an interview with Meyer here:
[audio:http://www.zimmcomm.biz/farm-foundation/seth-meyer-pre.mp3]
Domestic Fuel will provide coverage of the Transition to a Bioeconomy conference that will include an overview of the industry, how biofuels are impacting other segments of the market, and the bioeconomy’s impacts at the farm level. Other sessions will address risks of the bioeconomy; legal, transportation and public policy infrastructure issues; and the challenges and opportunities of the next decade in research, education, business and finance.
The Ethanol Car wound up practice in the top 10 with a combined (2 sessions) lap speed of 183.114.
After today’s ethanol press conference the media were treated to rides out on the track in the Iowa Speedway Pace Car. 
Just a few minutes ago I got interviewed by one of the journalists here and he asked what I had heard from corn growers who are at the track. I told him they’re very proud to be growing the fuel that’s being used in the IndyCars out here and that they’ll recover from the flooding problems they’ve been having. 
One of the speakers at the ethanol industry press conference here at Iowa Speedway this morning was Mike Sobestski, Vice President/COO, 
This morning at Iowa Speedway, representatives of the ethanol industry held an “inside look at ethanol” press conference. One of the speakers was Toni Nuernberg, Executive Director of the 
We had a sunny day yesterday at Iowa Speedway until mid-afternoon when a thunderstorm popped up and absolutely drenched the track. It cut short practice plans although there’s going to be plenty of that today if the weather cooperates.
regulatory groups, Aquila and Kansas City Power & Light to provide economic opportunity to local farmers while reducing our dependence on fossil fuels.”
As you might remember from