With half the ethanol industry offline, sales to drop $10 billion
More than two-thirds of U.S. ethanol plants are idle or running at reduced volumes in the greatest crisis the industry has ever seen, said a trade group leader on Monday. As a result of the coronavirus and reduced demand, The Renewable Fuels Association said in a report that ethanol sales could drop by $10 billion from the $23 billion expected year.
Small oil refineries pinged with high-priced ethanol credits
The so-called ethanol mandate guarantees the biofuel a share of the gasoline market. Because of this, the Wall Street Journal says "some of the world's biggest oil companies" will see a windfall of more than $1 billion from the sale of renewable fuel credits associated with the mandate.
The black-gold rush
In a series that opened on Sunday, the New York Times describes the oil rush in North Dakota and "its rapid transformation from a tight-knit agricultural society to semi-industrialized oil powerhouse."
Rail lines congested for months may deliver harvest snarls
The oil boom in the northern Plains "is creating a crisis for farmers whose grain shipments have been help up by a vast new movement of oil by rail," said the New York Times.
It’s all about oil in state agriculture commissioner race
The biggest oil companies in North Dakota are putting money into the race for state agriculture commissioner, says Reuters. It's not an oddball choice - the agriculture commissioner, along with the governor and the attorney general, sits on the Industrial Commission, which oversees permits "and other issues critical to the oil industry, which hopes to drill 35,000 new wells within 15 years," says the story.