Expanding Ethanol Production in the United States: The Roles of Policy, Price, and Demand.

ABSTRACT: Assessments of the impact of the U.S. renewable fuel standard (RFS) should inform consideration of future biofuels policy. Conventional wisdom suggests the RFS played a major role in stimulating the ten-fold expansion in ethanol production and consumption in the United States from 2002 to 2019, but evidence increasingly suggests the RFS might have had a smaller effect than previously assumed. Price competitiveness, federal and state policies such as reformulated gasoline requirements, and octane content in ethanol also affect ethanol market attractiveness. This study explores the roles of policy and economic factors by comparing historical data with results from scenarios simulated in a system dynamics model. Results suggest price competitiveness explains much of the growth in the ethanol

SUBMITTER: Newes E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10116853 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature