Why should a cattle rancher in Texas care about a severe drought hitting the Corn Belt states? Although genuine sympathy could be part of the answer, the main reason might be less charitable: cattle farmers in Texas are major buyers of corn from the Midwest. A drought in the Corn Belt would increase the corn […]
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To Harvest Stover or Not: Is it Worth it?
By Nicholas Paulson and Madhu Khanna on March 3, 2016 in Agriculture, Economics, Energy, Environment
Corn stover is a readily available source of biomass for the production of biofuels. Three U.S. refineries – Poet, Abengoa and Dupont – are converting it at commercial scale to biofuel. These biofuel facilities partner and contract with farmers to procure the stover feedstock used in processing. Farmers face a choice of whether or not […]
Questioning the Final RFS Rule, Part 1: the Rule and Background
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently published the final rule that establishes the volume requirements for calendar years 2014, 2015, and 2016 under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). Previous discussions about EPA’s arguments for use of the general waiver authority in the RFS statute reviewed a leaked version of the proposed rule and the proposed […]
Current Issues Surrounding the Renewable Fuel Standard
Overview of the RFS The Renewable Fuel Standard is just a single component of our nation’s broader energy policy approach. The RFS was originally created under the Energy Policy Act (EPAct) of 2005. In 2007, the Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA) expanded the original standard to what is now often referred to as RFS2. […]