Biden’s Mandates for Increased Production of Ethanol Are Wrong-Headed

Corn is delivered to the Green Plains ethanol plant in Shenandoah, Iowa, on Jan. 6, 2015. Roughly 100 trucks a day filled with corn flow into the ethanol plant in southwest Iowa even as crude oil prices continue to collapse. Oil prices may have dipped below $50 a barrel for the first time since April 2009, but ethanol plants across the nation continue to operate at a brisk pace in order to satisfy a domestic and export demand that hasn’t weakened. AP Photo/Nati Harnik

Commentary

On June 3, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that it will require American refiners to blend a record amount of ethanol and other biofuels into the country’s fuel supply. Reactions were mixed. Corn farmers in Iowa, where more than 40 percent of each year’s corn crop is turned into fuel, were happy.