Renewable Energy Report: May 2013 Newsletter

The Renewable Energy Newsletter provides information and analysis from agricultural economists and others on current issues facing the emerging renewable energy industry.

In this article, we examine issues related to the biofuels mandates and note some possible longer-term alternatives for resolving those issues.   

Changes in the corn-ethanol cost structure, along with the rapid increase in the revenue generated from the sale of distillers dried grains with solubles, have changed the relationship between ethanol sale price and the breakeven corn purchase price for profitable corn-ethanol production.  In this article I will discuss these changes and their impact.