Weather clouds future of biofuels

NEW YORK, July 1 (UPI) -- U.S. energy experts say recent storms and flooding highlight the risk of the nation's increasing reliance on corn for fuel.

The cost of filling U.S. gas tanks could soon be influenced "as much by hail in Iowa as by the bombing of an oil pipeline in Nigeria," The New York Times reported Tuesday.

"We are holding ourselves hostage to the weather," ethanol expert John M. Reilly of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology told the newspaper. "Agricultural markets are subject to wide variability and big price spikes, just like oil markets."

Biofuel supporters said the government mandate requiring oil companies to blend ethanol into motor fuel can be suspended in an emergency, while the Renewable Fuels Association said only two out of 160 U.S. ethanol refineries were shut down by recent storms.