A new federal climate plan which further cranks up taxes on carbon emissions also includes pledges of new programs to help sink more carbon into farmland. The government on Friday released the sequel to its 2016 Pan-Canadian Framework on Clean Growth and Climate Change — a “strengthened” climate plan, titled A Healthy Environment and a […] Read more

New greening programs planned for ag alongside carbon tax hike
Carbon price to hit $170 per tonne by 2030

U.S. fuel industry frazzled as EPA misses biofuel volumes deadline
COVID-19 fallout complicates process
New York | Reuters — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was set to miss a deadline Monday to announce how much renewable fuel the nation’s refiners must blend into their fuel mix next year, raising uncertainty in the fuel market and prompting one biofuel association to threaten to take the agency to court. Under federal […] Read more

Bayer plans more cost cuts, impairment charges
Pandemic now expected to hit crop science wing
Berlin | Reuters — German drugs and chemical company Bayer announced plans on Wednesday for more than 1.5 billion euros (C$2.34 billion) of cost cuts as of 2024 and said it would take impairment charges on its agricultural business as it battles with low commodity prices. Bayer said that the impact of the coronavirus on […] Read more

Trump’s EPA sides with farmers over refiners on biofuel waivers
New York | Reuters — The Trump administration said on Monday it rejected scores of requests from U.S. oil refiners for waivers that would have retroactively spared them from their obligation to blend biofuels like ethanol into their fuel, delivering a win for farmers and a blow to the oil industry just ahead of the […] Read more

Green Plains sues ADM, alleging ethanol market manipulation
Chicago | Reuters — Green Plains Inc., one of the biggest U.S. ethanol producers, sued Archer Daniels Midland on Tuesday, accusing the global grain trader of manipulating the price of the biofuel to profit from its positions in the derivatives market. Green Plains filed the proposed class action with the U.S. District Court of Nebraska, […] Read more

CBOT weekly outlook: Ag commodities steady
Slack demand for biofuel has dragged on corn
MarketsFarm — Crop commodity values on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) have largely stabilized as COVID-19 restrictions are relaxed in several U.S. states. “We’ve been playing this virus for a few months now,” said Scott Capinegro of Barrington Commodities in Barrington, Ill. COVID-19-related lockdown measures decimated demand for ethanol, which put considerable pressure on […] Read more

COVID-19 spurs new clash between Big Oil, Big Corn
Flagging consumption leads to pressures on U.S. fuels, biofuels
New York | Reuters — A fuel demand meltdown caused by the coronavirus outbreak in the United States has started up a new fight between the oil and agriculture industries over the nation’s biofuel policy, this time over whether the policy should be suspended or expanded as a result of the crisis. The issue once […] Read more

U.S. EPA waives fuel requirements, extends biofuels deadline
Deadline extended to help refineries
Reuters — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Friday unveiled measures to help oil refineries cope with fallout from the coronavirus outbreak, including waiving anti-smog requirements for gasoline and extending the deadline for small facilities to show compliance with the nation’s biofuels law. The outbreak has touched off a massive global decline in demand for […] Read more

Trump’s ag department sets 30 per cent biofuel goal for 2050
Washington | Reuters — The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Thursday announced a goal for biofuels to make up 30 per cent of U.S. transportation fuels by 2050, a move that could bolster an industry that has been otherwise battered by the Trump administration. Refineries are currently required to blend 20.09 billion gallons of biofuel […] Read more

Ethanol woes spur new feed focus for Green Plains
Biofuel maker to reinvent itself as DDGS-based feed maker
Chicago | Reuters — Green Plains Inc., one of the biggest U.S. ethanol producers, is planning to flip its business model upside down to survive a crash in prices for the corn-based fuel. The company will invest some $400 million in the next two to three years at its 13 plants to make high-protein, corn-based […] Read more