Reuters scoops competitors on EPA delaying decision on higher ethanol blend

Reuters scooped the competition on Nov. 19 in reporting the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was delaying its decision on whether gasoline blended with up to 15 percent ethanol is safe to use in cars and trucks built from 2001 to 2006. Ethanol producers and corn traders had been eagerly waiting the EPA decision in December. But a Reuters correspondent was tipped off by an ethanol industry source that the EPA was delaying its decision until January to conduct more tests on vehicles. Word of the delay was a factor in a plunge the same day in corn futures prices at the Chicago Board of Trade, according to traders. More than one in every three bushels of corn is used to make ethanol. Corn for December delivery fell nearly 4 percent to $5.20-3/4 a bushel.