Minnesota Farmers Union

(March 1, 2009) - If it's even partly true that you're known by the company you keep, then the farmer-loved ethanol business got a lot less lovable Feb. 8 when Valero Energy Corp., the largest crude oil refiner in North America, announced its intent to purchase five of the choicest plants owned by mega-biofuel maker, mega-bankrupt VeraSun Energy.

Should Valero succeed in acquiring VeraSun's best ethanol plants-and there's little reason to suspect it won't-Big Oil's drooling camel will have its nose in your government-sponsored, government-protected tent.

And you know what they say about camels and tents.

In all likelihood, Valero is just Big Oil's first camel. More will follow, especially if the ethanol business continues to struggle and cash-rich, market-insulated crude refiners can buy state-of-the-art ethanol plants for dimes on the dollar.

In fact, you have to wonder what took the refiners so long to start picking up-and picking off-ethanol operations. They've had big reasons to own ethanol for years.

For example, large refiners like Valero own gas stations (Valero owns more than 5,000 retail and branded stations in North America) so it has a built-in thirst for millions of gallons of ethanol. Why buy it retail when you can make it wholesale?