GoodFuels

USDA Talks Ethanol With Farm Broadcasters

Ethanol was a major topic of discussion for farm broadcasters meeting in Washington DC this week, especially when it came to pending decisions by the Environmental Protection Agency that could impact the future of the industry.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said that he has developed a good working relationship with Jackson. “By virtue of that line of communication, I think we’ve made a difference in EPA accelerating their consideration on the blend wall issue for ethanol,” said Vilsack. “We’ve got an important industry that’s sort of an infant industry that’s going through a tough time now and increasing that percentage, whatever it is, that’s going to help.”

Vilsack says they have made a very concerted effort to educate EPA about the status of the ethanol industry and how important it is to the president’s goals that we maintain the infrastructure.

Listen to Vilsack’s comments on that issue here:

USDA’s chief economist Joe Glauber answered a couple of questions about ethanol and indicated that he believes the renewable fuels standard is more important than raising the ethanol blend rate, because he thinks the blend wall is still a little ways down the road. “When EIA was doing their forecasts for gasoline consumption, before the downturn in the economy, they were expecting that to increase,” Glauber said. “Looking at the current estimates, we’re down probably nine billion gallons of gasoline consumption. I don’t think the blend wall really hits for a while yet so I think the mandates are really the main thing in the short run.”

When asked if he believed the ethanol industry can survive without tariffs or tax credits, Glauber again said that the mandate is most important. “The mandates would insure that those levels have to be met,” he said.

He’s an economist, so he rambles and hedges quite a bit in his long answers, but here is the audio from those questions.

The Renewable Fuels Association also provided comments on the issues to farm broadcasters by way of a special edition of “The Ethanol Report.” RFA president Bob Dinneen says EPA is taking comments on the increasing the blend level to 15 percent and he encourages people in the industry to provide their input. “It’s a great opportunity for those that support ethanol and believe that consumers ought to have options to let EPA know that we need to have the flexibility to utilize greater than 10 percent ethanol,” said Dinneen. But, ultimately, he says the decision will be grounded in science and he believes it will be approved.

You can listen to “The Ethanol Report” on-line here: