Mansfield Oil Company has acquired East Fork Biodiesel of Algona, Iowa … a 60-million-gallon-a-year refinery that will get its feedstock of corn oil from Mansdfield’s network of C&N Companies ethanol plants in the Midwest. This company press release says this will give East Fork a cheap source of biodiesel feedstock while providing a market for those ethanol plants’ corn oil: …
Pickens Encourages Investment in American Energy
“When do we stop investing in OPEC and start investing in America?” That’s the question that oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens asked at a House Ways and Means committee hearing Wednesday on “Energy Tax Incentives Driving the Green Job Economy.” Pickens told the panel that he’s for “anything that’s American” when it comes to energy -including wind, coal, solar, hydro, …
Ethanol Report on Prices
Prices for ethanol are down right now compared to gasoline, which means drivers are saving money at the pump when they fill up with ethanol blends. But we could be saving even more if blenders could add up to 15 percent ethanol in regular gasoline. In this edition of “The Ethanol Report,” Renewable Fuels Association Vice President for Research Geoff …
Higher Ethanol Blends Could Mean Savings at the Pump
According to the Renewable Fuels Association, American drivers could be saving 12-19 cents per gallon if more ethanol were allowed in gasoline. Based on current wholesale prices, ethanol is selling for $0.70-$0.80 less than gasoline before the federal tax incentive for blenders is taken into account. This means gasoline blended with the statutory limit of 10% ethanol (E10) should cost …
Colorado’s First Blender Pump Opening a Success
Dan Slinger, general manager of Stratton Equity Co-op, is excited to have the first blender pump in Burlington. Many of the co-op’s members grow corn. “We’re marketing about three million bushels of our members’ corn that’s going into ethanol production,” said Slinger. Steve Scott of the Colorado Corn Growers Association said ethanol has energized the corn business by raising prices …
USDA Experts Say Ethanol Blend Wall is Close
Ethanol is getting very close to hitting the blend wall, according to economists with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. With four months in a row of record ethanol production and stagnant gasoline demand, ethanol stocks are increasing. “Margins have weakened a lot over the last few weeks,” says USDA chief economist Joe Glauber, and indicators are that the blend wall …
Economist Defends Ethanol Jobs Numbers
In a commentary on the Natural Resources Defense Council blog, the organization’s Director of Renewable Energy Policy Nathanael Greene criticizes the ethanol industry for what he calls a “highly inflated jobs study” released earlier this week. Greene claims the industry’s jobs numbers are “way off” because they use both inflated jobs multipliers and inflated economic impact, creating what he calls …
Ethanol Starts 2010 With Record Production
U.S. ethanol production began 2010 on a record pace. The latest report from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) puts January 2010 ethanol production at an average of more than 818,000 barrels per day, compared to 188,000 in January 2009. EIA also reports fuel ethanol imports of 1.4 million gallons in January. Ethanol demand, as calculated by the Renewable Fuels Association …
Biofuels Benchmarking Annual Report Released
Today, Christianson & Associates, PLLP (C&A) has released a new in-depth report that looks into ethanol plant efficiency and financial viability. The Biofuels Benchmarking Annual Report is in its 7th year and analyzed the operational and financial performance of more than 50 ethanol plants along five major “bench” areas: overall ethanol industry analysis, regional ethanol plant analysis, production capacity analysis, …