Ethanol makers shift effort to demand side of ledger

Des Moines Register
By DAN PILLER • dpiller@dmreg.com • November 5, 2009

Emmetsburg, Ia. — Now that its losses have ended, the ethanol industry needs the federal government to increase the amount of the corn additive in gasoline, industry leaders say.

A Dec. 1 deadline looms for the Environmental Protection Agency to allow the blend of ethanol with regular gasoline to increase from 10 percent to 15 percent.

Ethanol makers need that increase in the blend to continue the growth in demand for their product, some of which will be produced at Poet's $200 million corncob-fed plant, expected to open in 2011 in Emmetsburg. It would be Iowa's first plant to produce ethanol from biomass, or cellulose.

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