Most of the increase in ethanol production in the 2008-2012 period can be attributed to the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA) and earlier federal energy legislation. The expansion in U.S. biofuel production, particularly ethanol, was the predominant cause of the elevated...

Rising prices on vegetable oils and animal fats have enabled dry mill ethanol plants to profitably extract corn oil from distillers’ dried grain. While the mandates under the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 for grain based ethanol will level off at 15 billion gallons in 2015, the...