Iowa would lose $10.3B a year in ethanol production without pipelines, report says

By Donnelle Eller

Des Moines Register

Feb 14, 2023

Iowa ethanol plants could close over the next decade without access to three proposed carbon-capture pipelines, a “catastrophic” hit that would ripple through the state economy, hitting farmers, livestock producers and rural residents, a new report funded by a renewable fuels group says.

Iowa’s ethanol industry would lose three-fourths of its production, or about $10.3 billion annually, in the next five to 10 years to neighboring states, according to a report from Decision Innovation Solutions, a Des Moines-area economic consultant.

Lost ethanol production would cut 1 billion bushels of local demand annually for Iowa corn, used to make the biofuel, according to the report, funded by the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association. That would equal about 40% of last year’s corn harvest, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture data.

To read the rest of this article, please visit its original source at the Des Moines Register.