Daniel Englander
The Morning Feedstock April 15, 2008 at 7:02 AM
A report in the ever-reputable Washington Times yesterday said President Bush will “announce as early as this week he wants Congress to pass a bill to combat global warming.” Bush is facing pressure from members of the business and manufacturing communities, who fear abrupt regulatory changes beginning with the new administration. Possible future regulations include a cap on carbon emissions, limitations on other forms of industrial pollutants, and an end to such administration-approved practices as mountain-top mining and the construction of logging roads through national parks. However, it appears the administration isn’t willing to go that far. A congressional spokesman, speaking after meetings between White House officials and Republic Congressional leaders, commented the Congress “is pretty much focused on a cap-and-trade, and anything less that you might propose would likely not be received favorably. Small steps aren’t what they’re looking at right now.”
Iberdrola chief Ignacio Galan to EdF: bid for us or “shut up.”
U.S. ethanol producers should expect a little more competition this summer. With corn prices jumping around $6 a bushel on the CBOT and corn ethanol hitting $2.55 a gallon at the pump, the pricing differential is high enough to make Brazilian ethanol profitable in the U.S. despite a hefty tariff. The University of São Paulo estimates wholesale sugarcane ethanol is priced around $1.64 a gallon and, with the $0.54 per gallon tariff, would sell for around $2.18 in the U.S. Pushing Brazilian ethanol prices down this year is a volume surplus of around 500 million metric tons, which will be refined into 20 billion litres of ethanol - enough to force downward price pressure in the domestic market and make export a good alternative to alleviate the oversupply. With U.S. corn prices expected to rise even higher over the summer - possibly topping $7 - and the tariff set to expire in 2009, it’s possible we will see a lot of U.S. producers dropping out of business. Or relying on ever higher subsidies to prop up their failing industry.
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[...] Marginalized Action Dinosaur wrote an interesting post today on The Morning FeedstockHere’s a quick excerptPresident Bush will “announce as early as this week he wants Congress to pass a bill to combat global warming.” Bush is facing pressure… [...]