South Dakota Senators John Thune and Mike Rounds are leading a delegation of Senators asking the USDA to provide additional funding for the biofuels industry through the Commodity Credit Corporation. That funding is needed to help biofuels producers and farmers from the negative economic circumstance brought about by the coronavirus pandemic. South Dakota Corn Grower’s Association President Doug Noem says that help is badly needed.

He says corn growers, especially in South Dakota are very dependent on the renewable fuels industry for their product.

Noem says the ethanol plants are being hurt by the effects of the pandemic as the demand for their fuel has dropped and the problem now is where to go with the ethanol.

Ethanol plants nationally use 40 percent of all corn grown in the United States. And among other feedstocks, biodiesel and renewable diesel producers currently use over 8 billion pounds of soybean oil a year.