As we have reported on both 6 August and 13 August, EPA is finalizing rules for the 2014 required volume obligations (RVO) for biofuels, and there is much speculation on how EPA will handle setting RVOs that fit within the 13.2 billion gallon blend wall for ethanol and fall within the EPA's regulatory jurisdiction under the statute (i.e., the 2005 Energy Policy Act and the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act). EPA does have some waiver authority to lower the standards but they are limited.The goal is to get the 18.15 billion gallons provided by the statute this year (see below) down to what EPA calls a reasonably achievable target.The easiest waiver is the cellulosic category. EPA has the ability to waive the cellulosic ethanol requ...
What You Need to Know Today: U.S. weather is getting more attention this week as conditions vary greatly across the western, central, and eastern corn belts, with the different regions battling dryness and too much rain simultaneously. The ProFarmer Crop Tour began today in Indiana and Nebrask...
Key Takeaways: Argentina is on pace for a record corn crop and record exports in the current marketing year, with abundant supplies likely to keep the country highly competitive in global export markets. Argentina’s record exportable surplus is allowing it to offer highly competitive pri...
From WPI Consulting
Communicating importance of value-added products
Facing increasing pressure to quantify the value of export promotion efforts to investors, a U.S. industry organization retained WPI to develop a quantitative model that better communicated the importance of exports. The resulting model concluded that value-added meat exports contributed $0.45 cents per bushel to the price of corn, increasing support for that sector’s financial support of WPI’s client. In addition to serving the red meat industry with this type of analysis, WPI has generated similar deliverables for the U.S. soybean and poultry/egg industries.