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Record corn, ethanol production enough to restore RFS

The Renewable Fuels Association says the combination of a projected record corn crop and record ethanol production highlight the importance of restoring the Renewable Fuel Standard to statutory levels.

RFA senior vice president Geoff Cooper tells Brownfield the EPA’s Renewable Volume Obligations for ethanol in 2017 are 200 million gallons short of the original statute.

“The reason (the EPA) backed down from 15 billion is because they suggested there would be an inadequate supply of renewable fuels to meet that requirement in 2017.  And as we’re seeing with these recent statistics, we’re going to have more than enough ethanol to meet that requirement.”

The USDA is forecasting domestic corn production to exceed 15 billion bushels on what would be a record yield of 175 bushels per acre.

Meanwhile, corn demand from the ethanol sector is on the rise and ethanol consumption is expected to reach an unprecedented 14.3 billion gallons by the end of this year.

Cooper says it all adds up to an ethanol industry poised to get bigger.

“We’re seeing very rapid expansion of infrastructure to dispense higher level ethanol blends: E-15 and E-85.  We’re expecting by the end of next year there will be around 750 to 800 stations offering E-15.  All of those stations will also be offering E-85.”

He says that will bring the total number of U.S. stations offering fuel mixed with 85 percent ethanol to about 4,000.

The EPA has until November 30^th to announce the final RFS targets for 2017.