Gas prices help put ethanol makers back on their feet

DesMoinesRegister.com
By DAN PILLER • dpiller@dmreg.com • June 13, 2009

If the 40-cents-per-gallon jump in the price of gasoline since last month has you down, at least take heart that the increase has given Iowa's ethanol industry a boost.

After a cold winter of closed plants, bankruptcies and losses, ethanol producers report that the rise in crude oil and wholesale gasoline prices has increased the demand for the corn-based biofuel and returned most plants to at least a modicum of profitability.

"We're not completely healed, but at least the bleeding has stopped," said Rick Brehm, president of Lincolnway Energy in Nevada.

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