When the U.S. ethanol industry was booming, Indiana farmer Paul Hodgen made good...
RACCOON TOWNSHIP, Ind./NEW YORK - When the U.S. ethanol industry was booming, Indiana farmer Paul Hodgen made good money selling about a quarter of his crop to a local facility that produced the corn-based fuel.
Some 13 ethanol plants have shut since November 2018, roughly 4.4% of the nation’s capacity, in a decline the biofuel industry blames on the Trump administration’s expanded use of waivers to exempt oil refineries from blending ethanol into gasoline. Several other ethanol plants temporarily reduced production during that time.
The Trump administration’s Environmental Protection Agency, which administers the RFS, has handed out roughly four times more exemptions to small refiners than Obama’s EPA. That dynamic played out for Hodgen this summer. Ethanol producer POET, a privately-held company, announced it was converting its plant in Cloverdale, 28 miles from Hodgen’s 6,000-acre farm, from a biofuel plant to a grain elevator, in August.
“Without the ethanol industry there to mop up all this excess corn, we would have a huge problem in the Farm Belt,” he said. “I don’t know what other crop we would shift to because there is a glut of everything else.”The Renewable Fuels Association, the nation’s biggest biofuel producer group, estimates that - in addition to the difficulties being faced by corn farmers, plant shutdowns have cost about 2,300 jobs.
Australia Latest News, Australia Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
California faces a crossroads on the path to 100% clean energyPower plants in Redondo Beach, Huntington Beach, Long Beach and Oxnard have become an early battleground in an increasingly urgent debate: How much natural gas does California need on its power grid, and for how long? Sammy_Roth reports:
Read more »
Lauren London and Puma Tribute Nipsey Hussle in New Campaign'Pain is the light, pain is insight.
Read more »
Could hormones be causing your ‘killer headache’? These are the signs to watchCould hormones be causing your 'killer headache'? These are the signs to watch - TodayShow
Read more »
Want an Underboob Tattoo? Read This FirstThey're 100 percent worth the pain, IMO.
Read more »
SpaceX is flying cannabis to the ISS so scientists can see if it mutatesThe research could expand our understanding of how plants react to the stresses of space travel.
Read more »