Executive Summary: The current cost to produce a gallon of ethanol is approximately $3/gal. The current price of ethanol is $2.86/gal, which explains why ethanol producers are shutting down. If corn and natural gas prices […]
Tag: corn prices
Prediction on Corn Futures Fulfilled
Last year, with corn bouncing around $3.70/bu, I wrote an essay called The Mythical Ethanol Threat. I noted the number of new ethanol refineries under construction, and predicted that overbuilding would lead to additional ethanol […]
Gas at $4 and Corn at $7
For the first time ever, with oil prices pushing $140/bbl on Friday, the U.S. national average price for gasoline cracked $4/gal: Gas price record reaches $4 a gallon NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Gasoline rose to […]
Debunking Robert Zubrin
A reader asked me a while back to take a look at the claims of Robert Zubrin, and comment. So I took a look at his claims, and while I found things that were wrong, […]
A Vicious Circle
What a vicious chain of events our politicians have set into motion. It just continues to worsen. It started out innocently enough. Oil prices were climbing. Our energy production was shifting to an ever greater […]
Ethanol in the News
And the news is bad. First up, an issue that is shaping up to be a major battleground between states. Nate Hagens brought this issue up on yesterday’s API call, but it was part of […]
Impending Food Crisis?
I know this is my second pessimistic post this week, but along with an energy crunch, I have been concerned about a food crunch. The whole ethanol love affair has had me worried for a […]
Corn Ethanol Economics
Someone e-mailed a few days ago and asked some questions about the present economics of corn ethanol. I did a few calculations, which I think are interesting enough to share. (Note that because this is […]
Corn Futures Behaving as Expected
Last May, in The Mythical Ethanol Threat, I discussed the massive overbuilding that was going on in the ethanol sector. I knew that it would squeeze margins, but that would also put the pressure on […]
Energy Heating Up Inflation
I am not quite sure why this was a surprise: Producer prices unexpectedly jump 1.3% There were two major culprits identified: Energy and food. However, the food component was also related to energy: Food prices […]