Ethanol Producers in Trouble as Corn Sets New Record

Add "bad weather" to the already lengthy list of problems corn-ethanol needs to overcome. Heavy rains, severe winds, and tornadoes throughout the Midwest has propelled corn into uncharted territory. July corn on the CBOT rose 28.6 cents Thursday to settle at an all time high of $6.43 1/4 a bushel.

Farmers are saying this is the worst weather they have seen since 1993, when U.S. crops suffered from weeks of rain that eventually led to the severe flooding of the Mississippi river. Agriculture Secretary Ed Shafer expressed "a lot of concern" for the corn crop in Thursday's summit on the global food crisis.

The option of replanting corn that was damaged in May is dwindling as farmers are deciding whether they should replace their corn with a shorter growing season crop like soybeans. All ethanol producers can do now is desperately pray for sunshine as there is already a tight supply of corn available.

Assisting Thursday's massive jump was a ~ $6 rise in crude oil as the dollar lost ground against the Euro.

Comments

[AlexS:]

Sorry, we can't have bad weather. The Congress has decreed that that corn must go into making ethanol, and how can we make ethanol if we don't have corn? Congress commands it to stop raining immediately, under penalty of law.

2008 Jun 06 10:09 AM

[bill7c:]

Congress will also see this as a chance to help their good old buddy's the ethanol blender by increasing the subsidy to them for all their "Hardship". I am sure Newt and Nancy will be on the couch telling us that the climate change boogey man is even more our fault.
I am sick of it.

2008 Jun 07 10:18 AM

[unimpressed...:]

This whole ethanol program is nothing more than a "wet dream" of the wacko environmentalists and the, equally, clueless Democrat Congress. The effects of this massively useless and expensive boondoggle will be catastrophic on the world food supply (riots are, already, in progress), waste time in the move to achieve oil independence, ruin automobile engines all over the nation, and drive the cost of fuel even higher.

The real answers are four fold and very easy to understand:

1. Open drilling in the ANWR, the coastal plains of Alaska, in the deep waters of the Gulf of
Mexico, and off the coast of California.

2. Build more refineries, now!

3. Build, at least, 100 new nuclear power plants.

4. Aggressively pursue and develop hydrogen as a fuel.

As to hydrogen, with the discovery of a Purdue University research team, last August, to produce hydrogen from water, on demand, the necessity of special and expensive handling is eliminated and the cost of hydrogen production is minimal, cheap, and safe .

Additionally several companies and organizations are furiously, at work developing fuel cell technology to produce electricity from hydrogen in vehicles, homes, and businesses. With a national emergency development plan this technology can be on line in five years or less. All that is needed is for the government to get the hell out of the way and let good old American ingenuity and determination get the job done.

A major and, extremely, important step in bringing all of the above to fruition in the shortest time possible can and must be taken in the coming November elections. The electorate must dismiss just about every member of Congress running for re-election and replace them with honest, knowledgeable, and dedicated to the will of the American people candidates.

Yes, your Congressional representatives, House and Senate, are anchors on the above proposed plans as well as everything else this nation needs to move forward and prosper. This marching in route step to the polls to blindly cast your votes for the same dunderheads, election after election, must cease, now! Otherwise, it will be the same old, same old and the country will continue to go down the tubes. Believe it!

Question: If your Congresspersons are dunderheads and you continue to vote for them, what does that make you?

2008 Jun 07 06:06 PM

[MNSL:]

Alternative energy such as Ethanol has beocme speculative now. It is time to leave the grain market now.

2008 Jun 07 08:41 PM

[33Nick:]

Boy, sugar cane never looked so good on the international market. What a ding bat exercise in futility making ethanol out of corn! Yes, definitely time to leave that speculative market.

2008 Jun 10 11:47 AM

[tylakewalker:]

At some point people outside of Brazil will realize the benefits of sugarcane based ethanol. It might not happen in the United States because our federal government is effectively run by large US corporations, but I do believe Brazilian ethanol companies will be able to export large quantities of sugarcane based ethanol in the not to distant future. Maybe China, India or other markets. I am long on Cosan (CZZ) and willing to wait. All of the mis-information about sugar cane based ethanol will go away and the truth will prevail in the long run. Sugarcane ethanol is one fuel that can be used to supplement gasoline.

2008 Jun 12 11:40 AM