@article{Finco:188088,
      recid = {188088},
      author = {Finco, Adele and Padella, Monica and Spinozzi, Romina and  Benedetti, Andrea},
      title = {BIOFUEL AND POLICY ALTERNATIVES: A FARM LEVEL ANALYSIS},
      address = {2010},
      number = {1014-2016-81545},
      pages = {27},
      year = {2010},
      abstract = {Within the past years, there has been a significant  movement in political consensus towards an
energy future  with a substantially larger renewable energy component both  in Europe and Italy.
The biofuel industry has been  experiencing a period of extraordinary growth, fueled by  a
combination of high oil prices, and ambitious blending  mandates, tax exemptions and import
protection.
The major  drivers are the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and  fossil fuel use, increased
awareness of fossil fuels’  contribution to global climate change, the desire to  promote economic
revitalization in rural areas and the  possibility to create new markets for agricultural  products.
This paper examines the history of European and  Italian biodiesel policy and evaluates the
economics of  biodiesel production in today’s market environment in  Italy. The aim is to shed
light on the prospective of the  industry and to understand the impacts of policy  alternatives.
The study is motivated by the increase in  biodiesel production capacity realized in Italy in the
past  years, in contrast whit the actual scenario, emerged from  Italian plant managers interviews.
We develop an analysis  at the firm level to review factors which have contributed  to the boom in
biodiesel production. The analysis is built  upon the work developed by Tyner and Taheripuor for
ethanol  (2008). It’s based on a break-even comparison for  combinations of rapeseed and biodiesel
prices which keep a  representative biodiesel plant at the zero profit  condition. The aim is to
examine the profitability of  Italian biodiesel industry in 2004-2009.},
      url = {http://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/188088},
      doi = {https://doi.org/10.22004/ag.econ.188088},
}