Northwest Iowa — Corn farmers are not exactly pleased about the news that more ethanol waivers are being given to oil refineries that — in their opinion — do not need them.
We talked to Kelly Nieuwenhuis of Primghar, who is the northwest Iowa director for the Iowa Corn Promotion Board. He tells us how he sees it.
Nieuwenhuis says that’s not being done either.
He says that it really doesn’t make sense, because the EPA is tasked with keeping cleaner air, and reducing the amount of ethanol that is to be used seems to go counter to that task. According to Nieuwenhuis, for the first time in 20 years, ethanol usage has dropped, due to the exemptions. He says it’s huge demand destruction for U.S. corn.
We asked Nieuwenhuis what he’d tell people who asked why — 30 years ago — all the corn got used, and there was no ethanol demand. He says there’s one reason — improvement in farming has meant bigger yields, so there’s more corn to use.
And he says with less demand, and more corn being grown, it would follow that corn prices will be going down as well.
