The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) has proposed revamping its data collection surveys and reporting process on fuel supplies, production, distribution and inputs. It outlined those plans in a late December notice and closed the request-for-comments period yesterday. Given the evolution of the market, many of the contemplated changes are designed to provide better data on biofuels production and use. The agency now issues reports for finished motor gasoline data via a number of surveys that were constructed in the mid-1990s and reflect the fuel market at that time. With the increase in mid-range ethanol blends, flex fuels and the likely approval of year-round E15 use, however, it will restructure the data with an emphasis on e...
Key Market Insights The broad market is locked in on this week’s Trump-Xi meeting in Beijing, but this is no longer just a trade summit. Increasingly, the meeting is becoming tied directly to Iran, energy security, and the growing global economic fallout from disruptions through the Strai...
Illuminating the value of technical research
On behalf of a commodity producer organization, WPI evaluated the outputs from a project that featured a $5 million investment into technical research over multiple years. WPI’s team captured the results of this extensive effort and synthesized them for presentation to the organization’s governing board; among the findings uncovered and presented for the first time was the development of genomic traits proven, via rigorous testing, to provide crop yield advantages of 50 percent or more to U.S. farmers in times of drought. Capturing measurable results from long-term efforts can be challenging. Educating clients on the dynamics of success measurement when quantifiable results are not readily available requires deep client-consultant collaboration and an ability to consider both near- and long-term client aspirations with market/policy dynamics – attributes that WPI brings to every consulting engagement.