Environmental Protection Agency Boosts Ethanol Market

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is renewing efforts to give ethanol a bigger market. Officials see this as an opportunity for producers. The agency is requiring over nineteen billion gallons of renewable fuels to be blended with gasoline by 2017. Fifteen billion of those gallons are corn-based ethanol. The new resolution is actually the same as the EPA’s 2007 goal.

Officials from the South Dakota Corn Growers Association commended the EPA’s action, saying that ethanol is the state’s biggest market for corn. Lisa Richardson, Executive Director of South Dakota Corn, says ethanol is a hot commodity right now. "The California Air Resource Board has set standards. We know, we believe we can meet those standards in a corn starch industry...We believe there’s huge opportunity not only in the U.S., but also markets outside of the U.S. for ethanol production," says Richardson.