US Drought to Hit Ethanol Exports, Not Gas Prices – EIA
(Reuters) …But gasoline prices should be spared despite the loss of ethanol output, the EIA said on Wednesday. “The impact of the forecasted decline in domestic ethanol production should be primarily reflected in reduced ethanol exports,” the EIA said.
The United States transitioned from being a net importer of ethanol to a net exporter in 2010 and in 2011 it was the world’s top producer of ethanol, ahead of Brazil. The EIA did not indicate how much imports should fall.
Flexibilities in the U.S. mandate for blending increasing volumes of ethanol into gasoline should help control gasoline prices, the EIA said.
The mandate allows fuel blenders to draw down stockpiles of ethanol and to apply banked credits representing produced ethanol known as Renewable Identification Numbers, or RINs, to achieve minimum blending levels.
The EIA said there are about 2.5 billion gallons of banked RIN credits available for compliance this year due to production beyond the mandated level in previous years. READ MORE and MORE (DomesticFuel.com) and MORE (Google/AP)
