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<p>Balanced Reporting. Trusted Insights.</p>
Wednesday, April 02, 2025
Trade tensions, the Trump administration's decisions on biofuel policy, and an oversupply of ethanol are placing ethanol plants in a tight spot financially, forcing some to either shut down or press pause on production until conditions improve, industry officials say.
The U.S. Department of Commerce has agreed to reduce the some of the U.S. duties on biodiesel shipped from Argentina, and that has U.S. soybean farmers upset.
The Environmental Protection Agency proposed Friday only a minimal increase in U.S. biofuel usage, reflecting modest growth in production of next-generation cellulosic ethanol, and the decision was immediately slammed by biodiesel producers.
The House Ways and Means Committee advanced a tax bill that would extend the biodiesel tax credit and other items related to blending infrastructure and wind, but the legislation will face objections in the Republican-controlled Senate.
Senate Republicans are expressing optimism that President Donald Trump will sign a fiscal 2019 spending agreement that would avert another partial government shutdown and fund USDA, the Interior Department and agencies such as EPA and FDA through Sept. 30.
In just a few short years, congressional biofuel blending targets will disappear, leaving it up to future leaders of the Environmental Protection Agency to decide what's next.
Congressional negotiators are struggling to close a deal that could increase border security funding while funding USDA, FDA and other agencies important to agriculture for the rest of fiscal 2019 and provide disaster aid for farmers hit by the 2018 hurricanes.
With one plant shutting down and others in danger of doing so, the biodiesel industry is sounding the alarm an expired tax credit has moved from a lobbying issue to an imminent threat to business.
With a new farm bill enacted and trade wars ongoing, the eyes of U.S. agriculture will shift to the Senate Finance Committee, where farm groups will have a critical ally at the top in new Chairman Chuck Grassley and several more in the panel’s membership.
