Drought year could double corn prices, ethanol the villain: report

Biofuels Digest
April 08, 2010

SolveClimate.org has published a detailed report from the University of Illinois, which found that a 1-in-10 drought year event could push US corn prices to $7.00 from $3.50. The report cites the impact of increased ethanol production (rising from 1.6 billion bushels of corn in 2005-06 to 3.7 billion bushels in 2008-09) in concluding that “the prices of corn and other foods sit on the edge of a knife.”

The article describes the EPA waiver mechanism as too slow, citing tat McMahon at Friends of the Earth, who said “if there is an immediate issue, like we saw in 2008, we weren’t able to deal with it immediately. By the time EPA got around to looking at it, the problem wasn’t that bad, so they said, well, we don’t have to do anything.”

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