KANSAS CITY (Reuters) - Renewable fuels like corn-based ethanol will get a boost as the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico feeds worries by Americans about long-term dependence on oil, a top U.S. private agricultural economist said on Tuesday.
"The spill has heightened the concern about our dependence on fossil fuels so that quite naturally is causing people to want us to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels. That brings us to renewables," JB Penn, chief economist at farm equipment maker John Deere, said in an interview on the sidelines at a Kansas City Federal Reserve ag banking meeting.
