That’s bad news for farmers hoping ethanol will help increase grain prices. But Brad Lubben, an economist at the University of Nebraska, says demand for ethanol could still increase in foreign markets.
"The growth in the biofuels market may increasingly focus on export potential because of these continued lingering issues about the national renewable fuels mandate," Lubben says.
Most of the increase in renewable fuels requested by the EPA would come from advanced fuels like biodiesel which have a smaller carbon footprint than corn ethanol.