IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ags/jlaare/267608.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Sweet Sorghum as Feedstock in Great Plains Corn Ethanol Plants: The Role of Biofuel Policy

Author

Listed:
  • Perrin, Richard
  • Fulginiti, Lilyan
  • Bairagi, Subir
  • Dweikat, Ismail

Abstract

This research examines whether sweet sorghum, a crop considered more drought-tolerant and suitable for semi-arid areas than corn, could result in an economically viable sweet sorghum ethanol pathway in the Great Plains. We find that that if the D5–D6 RIN price spread exceeds the $0.35/gal recently experienced, the benefits of the pathway would be equivalent to about $90/acre of sweet sorghum, or $0.38/gal of ethanol. Because of sparse cultivation potential, only four the six existing plants in the Nebraska–Colorado High Plains area might expect transportation costs to be low enough for economic feasibility.

Suggested Citation

  • Perrin, Richard & Fulginiti, Lilyan & Bairagi, Subir & Dweikat, Ismail, 2018. "Sweet Sorghum as Feedstock in Great Plains Corn Ethanol Plants: The Role of Biofuel Policy," Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Western Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 43(1), January.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:jlaare:267608
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.267608
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/267608/files/JARE%2CJanuary2018%2C%233%2CPerrin%2C34-45.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/267608/files/JARE%2CJanuary2018%2C%233%2CPerrin%2C34-45.pdf?subformat=pdfa
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.267608?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jansen, Jim & Wilson, Roger K., 2014. "2014 Nebraska Farmland Values and Rental Rates," Cornhusker Economics 306863, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Department of Agricultural Economics.
    2. Jansen, Jim & Wilson, Roger, 2015. "2015 Nebraska Farmland Values and Rental Rates," Cornhusker Economics 306900, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Department of Agricultural Economics.
    3. Christopher R. Knittel & Ben S. Meiselman & James H. Stock, 2017. "The Pass-Through of RIN Prices to Wholesale and Retail Fuels under the Renewable Fuel Standard," Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, University of Chicago Press, vol. 4(4), pages 1081-1119.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Christina Korting & Harry de Gorter & David R Just, 2019. "Who Will Pay for Increasing Biofuel Mandates? Incidence of the Renewable Fuel Standard Given a Binding Blend Wall," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 101(2), pages 492-506.
    2. Noel, Michael D. & Roach, Travis, 2017. "Marginal reductions in vehicle emissions under a dual-blend ethanol mandate: Evidence from a natural experiment," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 45-54.
    3. Leard, Benjamin & McConnell, Virginia, 2020. "Interpreting Tradable Credit Prices in Overlapping Vehicle Regulations," RFF Working Paper Series 20-07, Resources for the Future.
    4. James B. Bushnell & Jonathan E. Hughes & Aaron Smith, 2017. "Food vs. Fuel? Impacts of Petroleum Shipments on Agricultural Prices," NBER Working Papers 23924, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Erich Muehlegger & Richard L. Sweeney, 2017. "Pass-Through of Own and Rival Cost Shocks: Evidence from the U.S. Fracking Boom," NBER Working Papers 24025, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Gabriel E. Lade & James Bushnell, 2019. "Fuel Subsidy Pass-Through and Market Structure: Evidence from the Renewable Fuel Standard," Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, University of Chicago Press, vol. 6(3), pages 563-592.
    7. Curtis McKnight & Feng Qiu & Marty Luckert & Grant Hauer, 2021. "Prices for a second‐generation biofuel industry in Canada: Market linkages between Canadian wheat and US energy and agricultural commodities," Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics/Revue canadienne d'agroeconomie, Canadian Agricultural Economics Society/Societe canadienne d'agroeconomie, vol. 69(3), pages 337-351, September.
    8. Gabriel E. Lade & James Bushnell, 2016. "Fuel Subsidy Pass-Through and Market Structure: Evidence from the Renewable Fuel Standard," Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD) Publications 16-wp570, Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD) at Iowa State University.
    9. Luo, Jinjing & Moschini, GianCarlo, 2019. "Pass-through of the policy-induced E85 subsidy: Insights from Hotelling's model," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    10. Moschini, GianCarlo & Lapan, Harvey & Kim, Hyunseok, 2016. "The Renewable Fuel Standard: Market and Welfare Effects of Alternative Policy Scenarios," 2016 Annual Meeting, July 31-August 2, Boston, Massachusetts 235721, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    11. Scott H. Irwin & Kristen McCormack & James H. Stock, 2018. "The Price of Biodiesel RINs and Economic Fundamentals," NBER Working Papers 25341, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Noel, Michael D. & Qiang, Hongjie, 2022. "Open price contracts, locked-in buyers, and opportunism," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    13. Pouliot, Sebastien & Smith, Aaron & Stock, James H., 2017. "RIN Pass-Through at Gasoline Terminals," ISU General Staff Papers 201702220800001049, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    14. Joseph E. Aldy & Maximilian Auffhammer & Maureen Cropper & Arthur Fraas & Richard Morgenstern, 2022. "Looking Back at 50 Years of the Clean Air Act," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 60(1), pages 179-232, March.
    15. Li, Jing & Stock, James H., 2019. "Cost pass-through to higher ethanol blends at the pump: Evidence from Minnesota gas station data," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 1-19.
    16. Yeh, Sonia & Burtraw, Dallas & Sterner, Thomas & Greene, David, 2021. "Tradable performance standards in the transportation sector," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    17. Burkhardt, Jesse, 2019. "The impact of the Renewable Fuel Standard on US oil refineries," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 429-437.
    18. Harju, Jarkko & Kosonen, Tuomas & Laukkanen, Marita & Palanne, Kimmo, 2022. "The heterogeneous incidence of fuel carbon taxes: Evidence from station-level data," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    19. Yin Chu & J. Scott Holladay & Jacob LaRiviere, 2017. "Opportunity Cost Pass-through from Fossil Fuel Market Prices to Procurement Costs of the U.S. Power Producers," Working Papers 2017-02, University of Tennessee, Department of Economics.
    20. Jonathan E. Hughes & Ian Lange, 2020. "Who (Else) Benefits From Electricity Deregulation? Coal Prices, Natural Gas, And Price Discrimination," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 58(3), pages 1053-1075, July.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:jlaare:267608. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/waeaaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.