Now, the corn ethanol industry is back in the headlines over a growing movement to strip the ethanol industry of federal subsidies and blend quotas, which guarantees sales to corn growers, and is decried as an unnecessary handout by critics.

At the same time, the corn ethanol industry continues to respond to criticisms that biofuels present little environmental benefit, and that the growing of staple crops like corn for use as fuel represents a threat to global food production.

The key to America's corn ethanol industry's future is the 2014 Renewable Fuel Standard, which for reasons that could make sense only to bureaucrats and their industry appendages, has yet to be determined, and will set ethanol production mandates and determine ethanol blend limits last set in 2005.