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Leader says ethanol hurt by COVID-19, but the industry will survive

The Renewable Fuel Association’s President says ethanol production is slowly recovering from the effects of coronavirus. 

Geoff Cooper says, “It’s going to take more than COVID-19 to knock us out, but it’s certainly landed a blow on us. That’s for sure.”

Cooper tells Brownfield he is starting to see some nationwide ethanol production rebound as people start driving their vehicles more. “Production is back up to, you know, ten billion gallons on an annualized basis. We have the capacity to produce as much as 17 billion gallons and we were operating near that rate at the end of February.”

Cooper says production dipped to around 8 billion gallons in early to mid-April because of COVID-19 and shelter in place orders.  He says there will be some casualties, but he is confident most ethanol producers will bounce back after the pandemic. “Long term, ethanol is just too good of a product. The octane value and the economic value, just the low cost, and the ability to reduce carbon emissions which is something a lot of states are interested in really makes ethanol indispensable.”

Cooper says there is still a long way to go as many plants remain shut down or running at reduced capacity.