energy.agwired.com

The Wall Street Journal reports on the rising price of corn due to ethanol production.

The price for corn — the nation’s No. 1 crop and one of the most ubiquitous ingredients in the American food supply — has jumped nearly 55% since mid-September, when U.S. corn farmers began harvesting their third-biggest crop ever. Grain prices usually slump to their lowest levels of the year during the harvest season. Yet the price of corn in recent weeks has shot through the rarely breached $3-a-bushel mark and appears headed higher.

“The consequences of ethanol are the biggest thing going on in agriculture today,” says Keith Collins, chief economist of the U.S. Agriculture Department. “We are talking about a higher new benchmark for corn.”

Biofuels are helping to create more jobs in rural areas, according to a Des Moines Register report. The story features some of the people working for Lincolnway Energy near Nevada, Iowa and notes that “the industry promises job growth in a wide array of fields, including crop genetics, engineering, life sciences and construction.”

A shorter version of the article was picked up by the Associated Press.

More Iowans are finding themselves in a field they never knew existed when they were in school.

The expanding ethanol industry is attracting people from a variety of professions — and more are expected as another 10 ethanol plants are planned for Iowa.

The candidate for Lieutenant Governor in Minnesota got a quick lesson in ethanol politics this week when she failed what she called a “college quiz bowl” question about E85.

When a reporter asked Democratic candidate Judi Dutcher a question about the fuel blend, she answered, “It’s like you’ve asked me the college quiz bowl question. What is E-85?”

Minnesota is one of the nation’s largest ethanol producing states and has over 300 E-85 pumps, more than any other state in the country. So, Dutcher’s lack of knowledge about the fuel has become a big issue in the Minnesota governor’s race between GOP Gov. Tim Pawlenty and Democrat Mike Hatch.

Read the AP report here.

Texas-based White Energy Holding Company, LLC has acquired a 100-million-gallon-per-year ethanol plant, located in Plainview, Texas.

According to a company release, the plant will be a “near twin” of White Energy’s other ethanol facility under construction in Hereford, Texas. The Plainview facility is fully permitted and construction is underway, with completion targeted for early 2008. White Energy also owns an operating 45-MGPY plant in Russell, Kansas, which, when combined with output of the two Texas plants, will bring White Energy’s total production capacity to 245 MGPY.

Mid-Missouri Energy, a farmer-owned ethanol plant, is the topic of a New York Times article on local plant investors resisting the lure of big money.

According to the story, the farmer-investors in the small town of Malta Bend, Mo are being courted by “offers — some as high as $275 million” to buy the plant which opened in 2005.

So far, however, the plant owners have said no. To them — and to many other farmers who have invested in ethanol around the country — the ethanol plants represent more than a winning lottery ticket. Instead, they signify an emotional investment in the future of their farms and communities, a chance for greater independence and a sense of pride that they are helping make America less dependent on foreign oil.

The article talks about one potential investor who visited the plant claiming to “represent a pool of $11 billion aimed at ethanol investments, and outlined a bid of about $275 million.”

“He didn’t really know what ethanol was,” said Ryland Utlaut, a veteran of 40 years of corn farming who is the president of Mid-Missouri’s board. “That bothers me. We built this plant.”

The full story from the NY Times requires registration to view but it is an interesting look at what this investment in America’s domestic fuel future really means to the farmers who are making it happen.

A business conditions report for midwestern states indicates that economic growth has slowed overall, but ethanol is helping to fuel growth in at least one of the states.

In a monthly survey of supply managers in nine states, Creighton University’s Economic Forecasting Group found that Nebraska’s leading economic indicator, the Business Conditions Index, increased slightly for October. According to Creighton University Economics Professor Ernie Goss, “Aided by the construction of ethanol plants and ethanol production, non-urban areas of Nebraska continue to grow. Growth will be healthy into the first quarter of 2007 as high agricultural commodity prices assist rural communities that received adequate rainfall. In the urban areas, the transportation sector was a driver of October growth.”

States included in the survey are Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma and South Dakota.

Read more here.