In August 2017, the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver ruled that the EPA was too strict in granting exemptions for small refineries under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). Such an exemption is allowable if a petitioning refinery can demonstrate that compliance with RFS obligations will impose "disproportionate economic hardship" in the year for which it is requested. The court decided that the EPA was overzealous in applying that rule by following a standard that denial of an exemption in a given year would threaten the long-term survival of the refinery. It determined that using such a standard as the only or primary measure was too stringent and outside the EPA’s statutory authority. Per the 2005 Energy Policy Act, the...
What You Need to Know Today: Commodities were mostly lower across the board today after yesterday’s Federal Reserve meeting hinted at a potential interest rate hike later in 2026. The dollar index reached its highest level in over a year, and a strong dollar makes U.S. agricultural expor...
Tomorrow is the Juneteenth federal holiday, and the USDA, along with the rest of the federal government and the CME, will be closed, so the monthly Cattle on Feed report was released a day early. The total number of cattle on feed in feedlots with 1,000 head or more capacity on 1 June amounted...
From WPI Consulting
Illuminating the value of technical research
On behalf of a commodity producer organization, WPI evaluated the outputs from a project that featured a $5 million investment into technical research over multiple years. WPI’s team captured the results of this extensive effort and synthesized them for presentation to the organization’s governing board; among the findings uncovered and presented for the first time was the development of genomic traits proven, via rigorous testing, to provide crop yield advantages of 50 percent or more to U.S. farmers in times of drought. Capturing measurable results from long-term efforts can be challenging. Educating clients on the dynamics of success measurement when quantifiable results are not readily available requires deep client-consultant collaboration and an ability to consider both near- and long-term client aspirations with market/policy dynamics – attributes that WPI brings to every consulting engagement.