12/12/08 Big Chill & Ethanol Projection

The Big Chill & Ethanol Projections. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report. As we mentioned earlier in the week, the big chill is expected in the Pacific Northwest this weekend. Parts of Washington and Oregon will see frigid temperatures and strong winds and of course  snow. The USDA's December report shows lower commodity prices across the board and World Agriculture Outlook Board Chair Gerry Bange explains the significant adjustments in the 2008-2009 corn for ethanol use production. BANGE: (The) Energy Information Agency has been releasing of late, they have taken their estimate down. They took the estimate down in March; they took it down in September, October, November and December. Every one of those months they decreased the estimate of U.S. gasoline consumption. Obviously then that would mean less ethanol blending. If you look at the price of gasoline, right now the gasoline is actually running at a lower price than ethanol. Up until September, October gasoline was running at premium to ethanol. At this point it looks like there's very little incentive for ethanol producers to produce beyond the renewables fuels standard and they will likely not. Now here's today's Washington Grange Report. (GRANGE) That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.