Rawhide is excited about the opportunity existing in the rapidly expanding ethanol industry. Many are saying the transformation that is happening in agriculture and rural America due to this expansion has not been seen since mechanization occurred in the early decades of the 20th century. This revitalization of America’s heartland is producing both environmental benefits and economic opportunities. It is creating tax base for the U.S. and its rural areas, it is creating jobs and economic growth, it is easing our balance of trade deficit and making us more energy sufficient while creating new markets for farmers. It is not a threat to our domestic oil and gas industry since 58% of our crude oil comes from outside our nation’s borders. Integrated oil companies can actually sell more fuel without building more refineries. We believe that the industry has a bright future.  

The Energy Policy Act of 2005, in an effort to make us less dependent on foreign energy, included a staged Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) that will take us to a minimum of 7.5 billion gallons of renewable fuel by 2012. In 2006 the RFS requires 4 billion gallons of usage but actual production is estimated, according to the Renewable Fuels Association, to be approximately 5 billion gallons. Even with 5 billion gallons of production government data shows that demand for ethanol is not being satisfied. Clearly the tight supply in liquid motor fuels has become the demand driver for ethanol. This tight supply situation is not likely to abate since global demand led by China and India is still expanding. Even those who argue that we have oil reserves to meet this demand for decades to come are including hydrocarbons found in shale, tar sands, Arctic regions, and deep water. Most of these reserves require oil to be trading at $50 per barrel plus to make extraction profitable. Technology to transition a substantial amount of our vehicle transportation away from the internal combustion engine along with the infrastructure needed to support such a transition is decades away. The nation’s farmers have the ability to produce sufficient grain to support a much larger ethanol industry than is currently envisioned in the RFS. We believe increased ethanol production can bridge these issues.

Our company was founded on the basis of two prime objectives. First, produce ethanol for the benefits that will accrue to our nation as listed in the opening paragraph above. Second, to enable local and non-local participation in our projects.