After briefly rallying in November 2014, the price of ethanol continued to fall through the beginning of 2015. With the collapse of oil prices continuing to dominate the news, it is tempting to assume that the decline in ethanol prices is being driven by the bearish news coming out of the crude oil market. However, […]
Archive | Energy
How Does Changing Ethanol Capacity Affect Local Corn Basis?
Over the past decade, the United States has experienced a dramatic boom in ethanol production. The rapid expansion of ethanol was largely driven by the Renewable Fuel Standards (RFS), first introduced in 2005, which mandates that 36 billion gallons of renewable fuel are produced per year by 2022, 15 billion gallons of which can come […]
Growing a Sustainable Biofuel Economy: Part 1
The Environmental Appeal of Second-Generation Biofuels Second-generation biofuels from cellulosic feedstocks that were until recently thought to be always “five years away,” are now being produced commercially. In 2014, about 18 million gallons were produced, which was substantially higher than the 432,000 gallons produced in 2013. Poet-DSM and Abengoa are two of the refineries that […]
Trading Off Fracked Natural Gas for Coal in China
By Sarah Grajdura and Mindy Mallory on February 13, 2015 in Commodities, Consumer, Economics, Energy
China’s enormous growth in the past few decades stimulated a high demand for energy that historically has been fueled by coal. However, obtaining natural gas from fracking shale formations is becoming an economical competitor to coal in China because of advances in technology and economic incentives provided by the Chinese government (Thomas, p.1). Between 1984 […]
Policy Incentives for Energy Crop Production: Role of the Biomass Crop Assistance Program
The Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) has mandated that 16 billion gallons be produced from cellulosic feedstocks by 2022. Cellulosic feedstocks include dedicated energy crops (such as, Miscanthus and switchgrass), crop and forest residues. The mandate has been repeatedly waived, in part, due to lack of a commercially viable technology for biofuel production at reasonable cost […]