The Environmental Protection Agency is expected to make a decision soon on a request to waive the mandate that 10 percent of the nation's gasoline pool come from ethanol.
Last summer's drought raised concerns that there wouldn't be enough corn to satisfy both the mandate and the demand from livestock producers.
Those concerns have waned because the corn harvest was bigger than predicted and the demand for gasoline is down. The ethanol industry is still hurting, though.
Joining MPR's Cathy Wurzer with more on that is Jason Ward, an analyst with Northstar Commodity Investment, a Minneapolis firm that tracks agri-business and remewable fuels.