(Washington, D.C.) -- 2020 has been a difficult year for the ethanol industry. House Ag Committee Chair Collin Peterson says aid for the industry is contained in the House-passed HEROES Act, which they’re trying to reconcile with the Senate COVID-19 relief bill.
Peterson says the industry needs some assistance as soon as possible.
“We have a serious crisis with ethanol plants. There’s $2.3 billion in there for payments to the ethanol industry at 45 cents a gallon during a base period of January through April. And if the plant was shut down, they could use the base period from a year earlier. That’s something that’s very needed and I’m concerned about these plants staying viable and being able to stay in business going forward.”
Getting the ethanol industry going in the right direction would be a big boost for the price of corn.
“These corn prices are in the tank because of the lack of demand for ethanol. That’s one of the main problems. And these waivers that have been handed out by the administration and I think are unwarranted, and I have been going back-and-forth with them in terms of explaining to me why it is they gave out these waivers and what the rationale was, and I’ve still not found any information and they haven’t given me any information about why they did this.”
Peterson says refineries are petitioning the Environmental Protection Agency for retroactive waivers in a continuing attempt to get out of their obligations under the RFS.
“Now they’re trying to get retroactive waivers back to 2011. So that’s another issue that’s the big problem out there. We have corn worth three bucks in my district, not all because of ethanol but largely because of the ethanol situation.”
The ethanol industry would benefit if people would start driving more and the price of oil would bounce back. Those are very influential factors for the health of the ethanol industry.
“We’re trying to keep those plants going and we’re hoping that the oil prices will come back, and we get back to normal with people driving again, and so forth.”
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September 06, 2020 at 03:30AM
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House Ag Chair Says Ethanol Industry In "Crisis" - KMAland
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