Posted on 02/02/2007 3:43:01 PM PST by shrinkermd
Politicians and Wall Street cheered when the ethanol industry went on a building binge. Now the distillers are waking up to the ugly possibility of a gasohol glut.
...Ethanol makers need the help. Corn prices, 75% of the cost of ethanol production, have doubled in the past six months, to more than $4 a bushel. At the same time, the price of ethanol has followed the price of gasoline downward.
Absent a rescue from Capitol Hill, the glut is going to get worse. AgResource's Basse estimates the blending demand for ethanol at 10 billion gallons, 7% of the 150 billion gallons of blended fuel burned each year. Current nationwide ethanol capacity is 5.4 billion gallons. But 6.1 billion gallons' worth of capacity is now under construction, according to the Renewable Fuels Association. That would push supply right past demand and destroy ethanol prices. Unless mandates are tightened. At the moment the motor fuel industry is meeting environmental minimums and exceeding the energy independence ones.
Under present law the independence minimum comes to 4.7 billion gallons of ethanol this year and 7.5 billion in 2012. But now the Bush Administration is considering boosting this mandate to 60 billion gallons by 2030. That target is also mentioned in a pair of Senate bills penned by presidential hopefuls Joseph Biden (D--Del.) and Barack Obama (D--Ill.). They would as well provide tax credits for high-ethanol fuel pumps, refineries and other biofuels production.
(Excerpt) Read more at members.forbes.com ...
They might do that,,,One of these Bio_Fuel outfits is going to open up here in town,,but they are going to use peanut oil,,lots of peanuts in Alabama,,stock up on the peanut butter..
Damn stupid politicians!
Quit trying to manipulate the free market.
All you accomplish is the further wasting of my tax dollars.
You bet I'm pissed!
To all: how are your diesel prices?
Leave it to the press to make good news sound like bad news.
Corn prices double to $4.00 a bushel.
At $2.00 a Bushel its a wonder the farmer can afford to raise it, Finally the price goes up a bit,but how much of this raise does the farmer get?
A lot of farmers cooperatives are building their own ethanol plants.
A lot of farmers cooperatives are building their own ethanol plants.
What will all those Mexican peasants do when tortilla prices really skyrocket?
R I O T ! ! !
Why cannot grass clippings be used for ethanol look at the energy cows get from grass.. Maybe studing how cows convert grass plus current ethanol processes could make use of the huge waste of a residential resource. in grass clippings and the grass on the side of roads and highways too.. Gather it ALL for ethanol production..
"Our preliminary cost estimates suggest that we can produce biobutanol from corn for about $1.20 per gallon, not including a credit for the hydrogen produced. This compares with ethanol production costs of about $1.28 per gallon. Taking into account the higher Btu content of butanol, this translates to 105,000 Btu per dollar for butanol and 84,000 Btu per dollar for ethanol with corn at $2.50 per bushel. As a further point of reference, butanol produced from petroleum costs about $1.35 per gallon to manufacture.
The economics of the EEI process will be even more attractive when waste material is used as feedstock instead of corn and the price to produce a gallon is $0.85 . In such cases the need and cost to grow and prepare the corn for fermentation, by far among the major cost items, are eliminated."
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