CARD Director Briefs USDA Secretary on Biorenewables

Bruce Babcock, professor of economics and director of the Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD), traveled to Washington December 22 for a briefing of Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns on issues surrounding biorenewable fuels. The meeting was attended by the deputy secretary, the under secretaries for Rural Development and Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services, and Chief Economist Keith Collins. Much of the discussion centered on increasing E-85 fuel supply and meeting ethanol, livestock, and export demands for corn. Discussion also focused on CARD's preliminary estimates of the long-term impacts of ethanol expansion on the grain, oilseed, and livestock sectors, one of the earliest attempts to project the effects of a major shift in U.S. energy policy.

(Released January 2007)