How badly is COVID-19 slamming biofuels industry? 30% reduction of ethanol production capacity, nearly half offline in coming weeks?

COVID-19 is creating a rocky road for everyone but is it all gloom and doom? RFA told The Digest that about 4.4 billion gallons of capacity has come offline since March 1, plus what was already idle, the total is about 5.2 billion gallons idle – that’s approximately 30% of the industry’s total. Growth Energy told The Digest nearly half could come offline in the coming weeks.

But it’s not all doom and gloom from the biofuels industry. There’s talk of protecting employees and the RFS, biojet fuel offtakes still progressing. National Biodiesel Board for example still expects to exceed 6 billion gallons by 2030 and 15 billion gallons by 2050.

In today’s Digest, we asked biofuel leaders what they thought numbers might look like as a result of ‘Rona, how long they think the impacts will last, if they foresee a wave of M&A movement like in 2008-09, what actions could alleviate the pain for the industry, and more.