Midwest Floods Hammer US Ethanol Industry, Push Some Gasoline Prices Toward Five-Year High

Midwest Floods Hammer US Ethanol Industry, Push Some Gasoline Prices Toward Five-Year High
The contents of grain silos which burst from flood damage are shown in Fremont County Iowa, on March 29, 2019. Tom Polansek/Reuters
Reuters
Updated:

NEW YORK—The March floods that punished the U.S. Midwest have trapped barrels of ethanol in the country’s interior, causing shortages of the biofuel and helping to boost gasoline prices in the western United States.

The historic floods have dealt a series of blows to large swaths of an ethanol industry that was already struggling with high inventories and sluggish domestic demand growth.