Ethanol Week - December 26, 2018

Pacific Ethanol idles Aurora East plant Faced with poor market conditions, Pacific Ethanol has idled its Aurora East plant in Aurora, Nebraska, and laid off 26 workers at the Pacific Aurora campus. The 45 MMgy facility has been in operation since 1995. READ MORE SHARE
Trump signs 2018 Farm Bill On Dec. 20, President Trump signed the $867 billion 2018 Farm Bill into law. The bill, titled the Agricultural Improvement Act, or H.R. 2, reauthorizes several Energy Title programs, including REAP and BCAP. READ MORE SHARE
	EPA: 8 new small refinery waivers filed The U.S. EPA has released updated data on small refinery hardship waivers filed under the RFS, reporting that seven new waivers for the 2018 compliance year and one new petition for the 2017 compliance year were filed between Nov. 10 and Dec.18. READ MORE SHARE
RFA, TRANSCAER to host ethanol safety webinars next year The RFA will host four safety webinars in 2019, focused on ethanol emergency response training. READ MORE SHARE
DOE opens FOA for $37M in new research, development grants The U.S. Department of Energy has issued a second funding opportunity announcement (FOA) for the Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer programs for fiscal year 2019. READ MORE SHARE
RFA: RFS2 ‘has unquestionably lived up to its promise’ Eleven years ago, President George W. Bush signed into law what has become the single most successful clean fuels policy in the United States—the expanded Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS2), according to the Renewable Fuels Association. READ MORE SHARE
UNICA: Increased ethanol production, sales continue in November UNICA, the Brazilian sugarcane industry association, has announced ethanol production by mills in the country’s south-central region was up during the second half of November despite a drop in the volume of sugarcane that was processed. READ MORE SHARE
Minnesota marks more alternative fuel milestones in 2018 This year, Minnesota became the first state in the country to have more than 400 public and private E85 stations. In 2018, 46 new E85 stations opened throughout Minnesota, bringing the total number of public and private stations to 411. READ MORE SHARE
Midwest AgEnergy surpasses 1 billion gallons produced Midwest AgEnergy, the parent company to ethanol biorefineries Blue Flint, near Underwood, North Dakota, and Dakota Spirit, near Spiritwood, North Dakota, recently surpassed production of more than 1 billion gallons of ethanol produced company-wide. READ MORE SHARE
ABC: Canada’s Clean Fuel Standard takes step forward In a significant development for the clean fuels sector, Environment and Climate Change Canada has released the Regulatory Design Paper reflecting a year of intensive consultation on the national Clean Fuel Standard. READ MORE SHARE