2019 Spring Farm Outlook

Page 14 2019 Logan County Farm Outlook Magazine Lincoln Daily News March 21, 2019 sufficiency, avoiding politically charged purchases and commitments for fuels to unstable regimes in middle-eastern countries. Today the aims have changed. With the expansion of shale oil production in the gasoline industry we are now energy self-sufficient and are now a petroleum exporter. The aim of ethanol use now is for environmental protection and agricultural support. Most gas stations in the U.S. sell a blend of gasoline and the 10% ethanol produced mainly from corn goes to motorists driving automobiles and light trucks. In 2011 the EPA cleared all automobiles produced after 2001 to use E10. With government subsidies, the ethanol industry grew, corn consumption grew, independent ethanol producers went out of business and sold out to big grain consortiums (like ADM and Cargill), and the farmers who grew corn were rewarded. In an attempt to grow the ethanol industry, new ethanol blends such as E85 were produced and marketed. E85 is a blend of 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline, and still exists today. Approximately 11 million E85 flex fuel vehicles have been produced since their advent in 2008 but only about one-half million of the E85 capable vehicles get fueled with E85 gasohol today for two reasons: First, the availability of E85 has been hampering E85 sales. Few gas stations were able to sell E85 because of the infrastructure changes needed to support E85; and second, drivers found that they got poor mileage from low-energy E85 compared to E10, and few continued to use E85 despite the lower price. In March 2009, a lobbying group, Growth Energy, formally requested that the EPA allow the ethanol content in gasoline to be increased to 15% from 10% for general consumption in the United States. Their aim was for E15 to replace E10 as the automobile standard for cars and light trucks produced after 2001. Growth Energy’s motivation was to expand the ethanol industry, and the result would be to expand the consumption of corn. The EPA gave tacit approval, with the restriction that E15 only be sold from October thru May each year. Since ethanol requires great quantities of electricity to produce, the EPA wanted to limit the production of E15 to reduce the amount of carbon put into the atmosphere by coal burning power plants during the high electricity production summer season (an Obama administration environmental regulation). Continue 8