Oil lobby biggest threat to U.S. ethanol: RFA leader

Reuters
By Christine Stebbins
CHICAGO
Wed Jun 20, 2012 4:57pm EDT

CHICAGO (Reuters) - The biggest threat to U.S. ethanol makers, now struggling with negative profit margins, is not high corn prices but possible changes to the renewable fuel policy by Washington legislators, the top ethanol industry executive said on Wednesday.

"This year is tough. Our biggest challenge though is more about Capitol Hill and threats to policy than the markets and threats to profitability," Bob Dinneen, chief executive of the Renewable Fuels Association, told Reuters on-line grain forum.

The 2007 U.S. energy policy's renewable fuels standard (RFS), mandates annual production of 15 billion gallons of ethanol by 2015 for energy independence. By 2022, RFS calls for 36 billion gallons of renewable fuels, including cellulosic biofuels.

U.S. ethanol production in 2011 was 13.9 billion gallons of which more than a billion gallons was exported.

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