Ethanol Week - March 24, 2020

Ethanol producers help produce hand sanitizer to combat COVID-19 The U.S. government on March 18 relaxed regulations to allow producers of fuel ethanol and beverage alcohol to shift production to ethanol-based hand sanitizers. Days later, several ethanol plants are taking action to help combat COVID-19. READ MORE SHARE
Oil refiners to challenge Tenth Circuit Court decision on SREs Wynnewood and HollyFrontier filed a petition with the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals on March 19 announcing they will seek a rehearing en banc of the court’s Jan. 24 ruling that struck down three SREs approved by the U.S. EPA. READ MORE SHARE
	Ethanol industry seeks to protect employees during pandemic The ethanol industry is struggling with demand destruction resulting from COVID-19, an oil price war, ongoing trade disputes, and SREs. “Folks, this is not going to be good, and our biggest concern by far is our people," said Al-Corn CEO Randy Doyal. READ MORE SHARE
SIRE navigates ‘uncharted territory’ of COVID-19, falling prices Mike Jerke, president and CEO of Southwest Iowa Renewable Energy, dicusses ways in which his company is working to help flatten the curve of the COVID-19 outbreak while protecting employees and ensuring plant operations can continue. READ MORE SHARE
EPA: 25 SRE petitions now pending for compliance year 2019 The U.S. EPA released updated small refinery exemption (SRE) data on March 19, reporting that two additional SRE petitions have been filed under the Renewable Fuel Standard for compliance year 2019. READ MORE SHARE
	Ethanol prices hit historic lows during pandemic Ethanol producers are being impacted by the pandemic, oil war, trade disputes and small refinery waivers. With prices reaching as low as 94 cents per gallon as of March 18, ethanol producers are bracing for difficult decisions and possible closures. READ MORE SHARE
Ocean Park: 2019 ethanol mergers and acquisitions below average Last year’s low margins impacted mergers and acquisitions in North America’s ethanol industry, according to a report released by Ocean Park. Total North American ethanol capacity bought and sold during 2019 was the second lowest in five years. READ MORE SHARE
UNICA releases updated data, helps fight COVID-19 pandemic UNICA, the Brazilian sugarcane industry association, recently released ethanol production and sales data for February and has announced its members are donating alcohol for use in hand sanitizer to help contain the spread of COVID-19. READ MORE SHARE
ACE: Economic stimulus needed amid COVID-19 market fallout As the COVID-19 spreads across the U.S., threatening American lives and adversely impacting the nation’s economy, the transportation fuel sector will be especially hard hit. Declines in consumer gasoline use will shrink demand for corn ethanol. READ MORE SHARE
Recovering phosphorus from DDGS can help reduce pollution A new study from University of Illinois examines the best way to recover phosphorus from dried distillers grains with solubles (DDGS) as a co-product, which can then potentially be used as fertilizer for corn and soybean production. READ MORE SHARE