The ethanol industry is focused on continued turmoil in energy markets and increasing expectations of a full-blown recession next year.
Renewable Fuels Association head Geoff Cooper says higher oil and gas prices this winter, aggravated by the war in Ukraine and Western sanctions on Russian oil and gas will have a direct bearing on ethanol.
“Our marketplace is still very much affected by what’s happening globally…and this idea of energy independence is really a myth. But the way that we can help reduce the impacts of some of these global, geopolitical events, is to grow our domestic supplies, extend the stocks of fuels we have, here in the U.S.”
Including biofuels like corn ethanol and biodiesel.
And then, there’s the growing expectation of economists and business executives, the U.S. will see a full-blown recession later next year.
“That is something we are absolutely keeping an eye on, very close eye on, because obviously, when you enter a recession, fuel demand tends to slide, and we’ve seen that in the past—that’s not going to be good for our industry, and we’ve seen in the past. But at the same time, we also know that during recessions, consumers are looking for lower-cost options.”
Cooper argues ethanol continues to be one of the only lower-cost fuel options, pointing out, the more ethanol added to gasoline, the lower gas costs will be.
