The Hill (USA) published an op-ed by Senior Research Fellow Joseph Glauber. He explained that in recent weeks, there have been calls from ethanol producers to extend the authorities used by the USDA’s Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) to provide a bailout to their industry to compensate for losses due to the pandemic. The Renewable Fuels Association states that pandemic-revenue losses due to the drop in ethanol production will top $7 billion in 2020. But if one compensates the ethanol industry, why not compensate others, such as grain merchants who were storing corn and other grains over that period or feedlot operators who buy corn and products to feed animals? Compensating ethanol producers would just open the door for other claims. It is bad precedent and bad policy.
Don’t bail out ethanol (The Hill)
July 23, 2020