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Topic: Ethanol
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| Agency: Federal Trade Commission
Date: 1 December 2009 [Non-automotive content removed.] |
As of September 2009, 160 firms produced ethanol in the United States – the same number as cited in the FTC’s 2008 report. In addition, the largest ethanol producer’s share of capacity remained the same, at 11 percent of domestic ethanol production capacity, down from 16 percent in 2007, 21 percent in 2006, 26 percent in 2005, and 41 percent in 2000.
As in previous reports, FTC staff calculated market concentration for the ethanol production industry using different measures. Staff measured the market share for each producer according, first, to the producer’s production capacity and, second, to its actual production. Staff then performed separate concentration calculations using three different methods that attribute market share to: 1) the producer itself; 2) the firm that actually marketed the producer’s ethanol output; and 3) the marketing firm only when marketing the producer’s volumes pursuant to a pooling agreement.
The report, which is available on the Commission’s Web site and as a link to this press release at http://www.ftc.gov/os/2009/12/091201ethanolreport.pdf, was submitted to Congress and the Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, as required by the Energy Policy Act of 2005. The Commission vote to issue the 2009 report, which was prepared by the staff of the Bureaus of Competition and Economics, was 4-0. (FTC File No. P063000; the staff contact is John H. Seesel, Associate General Counsel for Energy, Office of the General Counsel, 202-326-2702.)