The ethanol industry appears poised for a big year in 2007, as companies scramble to take advantage of continuing government subsidies and a growing political desire to reduce the country’s dependence on foreign oil.
But Wall Street investors who went pedal-to-the-metal during ethanol’s midyear frenzy in initial public offerings of stock seem to be easing off [...]

The Iowa Renewable Fuels Association says the state will produce a record 1.5 billion gallons of ethanol in 2006.
The trade group says Iowa ethanol plants will turn out 36% more corn-based fuel in 2006 than last year, when 1.1 billion gallons was made.
In producing the record amount of ethanol, Iowa’s ethanol plants processed over 550 [...]

The rapid expansion of the ethanol industry is helping to boost Asian imports of distillers grain, a byproduct of the alternative fuel used as high-protein livestock feed.
The U.S. Grains Council is working to expand markets for DDGS - or dried distillers grains with solubles - in Japan, Taiwan, Vietnam and China, said Cary [...]

South Dakota company said Monday it plans to build the first commercial scale cellulosic ethanol plant in the U.S., meaning it will use corn stalks and leaves — not just the kernels — to produce the renewable motor fuel.
With an investment of about $200 million, Broin Companies plans to expand the capacity of an existing [...]

Biomass-powered ethanol plants should be the goal for the industry.
That’s one idea Bill Lee of the Renewable Fuels Association put forward during the Minnesota Environmental Initiative’s recent event, Farming Our Fuel: Growing a Sustainable Ethanol Industry.
Plants fueled by biomass would lower carbon inputs and shift the industry to a more sustainable base, Lee said.
“We need [...]

With new ethanol plants going online monthly and increasing demand for the homegrown fuel additives, transportation companies are scurrying to provide the needed trains, trucks and storage tanks to keep up with the rapidly growing industry.
The fuel additive industry is growing from regional to national distribution, driven by a federal renewable fuels standard beginning in [...]

Agroup of Maryland grain farmers who have been trying to push ahead with plans to build the state’s first ethanol production plant can be forgiven for feeling as though they are pursuing an elusive objective.
“We thought we would be further along than we are at this time, but we are working at it,” Eastern Shore [...]