Fuels America held a webinar briefing with industry stakeholders Thursday about the future of the Renewable Fuel Standard. Under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) program in the Clean Air Act, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) sets annual biofuel blending requirements in accordance with volumes determined by Congress through 2022. After 2022, in a rulemaking commonly referred to as “The Set,” …
USDA Lowers Corn Use Outlook
USDA’s World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates report for September calls for lower supplies, smaller feed and residual use, reduced exports and corn used for ethanol, and tighter ending stocks for the 2022-23 corn crop. Projected beginning stocks for 2022/23 are 5 million bushels lower based on essentially offsetting export and corn used for ethanol changes for 2021/22. Corn production …
USDA Announces Climate Smart Commodities Project Funding
The U.S. Department of Agriculture is investing up to $2.8 billion in 70 selected projects under the first wave of the Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities funding opportunity, with more projects to be announced later this year. More than 450 proposals were submitted for the funding opportunity and the strength of the projects identified led USDA to increase its investment from …
RFA Rebuts Reuters Ethanol Plant Emissions Article
The Renewable Fuels Association responded to a Reuters article published Thursday entitled “How U.S. regulators allow ethanol plants to pollute more than oil refineries.” The article states that “ethanol plants produce more than double the climate-damaging pollution, per gallon of fuel production capacity, than the nation’s oil refineries, according to a Reuters analysis of federal data” because the majority of …
ACE Explores Ethanol’s Expanding Role in Carbon Market
As Congress was passing sweeping legislation last week with provisions targeted on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the American Coalition for Ethanol was holding its annual conference focused on ethanol’s role in turning down carbon intensity. ACE CEO Brian Jennings says the Inflation Reduction Act “recognizes the role farmers and biofuel producers can play in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and validates …
Bill Includes Farms and Biofuels for Climate Action
Farm and biofuel organizations are pleased with provisions included in the Inflation Reduction Act signed into law by President Biden Tuesday, including new funding to encourage agricultural conservation programs and advance biofuels. “Through this legislation, Congress and the administration recognize that farmers’ voluntary climate-smart agricultural practices are an important part of addressing climate change,” said Brooke Appleton, the National Corn …
USDA Forecasts Lower for Corn
USDA has lower forecasts this month for corn production, supplies, exports, and ending stocks. The August Crop Production report from USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) estimates corn production down 5% from last year, forecast at 14.4 billion bushels while soybean growers are expected to increase their production by two percent from 2021 to 4.53 billion bushels. In this month’s …
Next Gen Fuels Act Introduced in Senate
Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Joni Ernst (R-IA), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) joined together Tuesday to introduce the bipartisan and bicameral Next Generation Fuels Act, which aims to leverage higher-octane fuels to improve engine efficiency and performance. Allowing the sale of fuels with greater octane levels would increase the amount of ethanol that can be utilized in the …
Tech Hub LIVE Keynoter Offers Ag Economic Insights
Keynote speaker for the second annual Tech Hub LIVE last week was David Widmar, managing partner at Agricultural Economic Insights (AEI), who offered his insights on where we are in the farm economy production agriculture business cycle, some key demographic trends, and some key conversations to have with growers. Widmar says one of the main favorable factors in the current …
Corn Planted Acres Down Four Percent
Acres planted to corn are lower compared to last year while soybean acreage is a little higher, according to the Acreage report from USDA‘s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS). USDA estimates 89.9 million acres of corn planted in the United States for 2022, down 4% from last year. Soybean area planted is estimated at 88.3 million acres, up 1% from …