Politics and not economics drove the White House announcement today to approve year-round E15 fuel sales under an emergency waiver of the Clean Air Act’s requirements. Ethanol makes sense as an octane booster but less so as a gasoline substitute. Blending at the E15 level is already allowed in winter months and yet its use remains very low. The EIA has no measurement of E15 (or E85) use, but their best guess is 200 million gallons of E15, or 0.148 percent of all gasoline sold. Meanwhile, EIA says that “Almost all [95%] U.S. gasoline is blended with 10 percent ethanol.” Corn only gained about 10 cents/bushel today despite a policy announcement that theoretically could have sent it into the stratosphere. Boosting etha...
Accountability and a comprehensive approach to export programming
WPI’s team helped construct a strategic approach to develop, implement, and track promotional activities in 8 key regions across the globe for an agricultural export association. With continued progress measurement and strategic advisory services from WPI, the association has seen its ROI from investments in promotional programming increase by 44 percent over the past 5 years. Not only does this type of holistic approach to organizational strategy provide measurable results to track and analyze, it fosters top-down and bottom-up organizational accountability.
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...