In 2012, the governors of several livestock–producing states asked the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to suspend federal ethanol mandates due to a major drought (Amanda Peterka, “EPA Denies Waiver of Corn-based Fuel Requirements,” Greenwire, November 16, 2012).
The mandates require that gasoline be mixed with a specified amount of ethanol, which is produced from corn. Over 30% of the corn crop goes to making ethanol. The governors wanted more corn used for feeding livestock and humans. The EPA rejected the requests because it was “highly unlikely” that waiving the volume requirements for ethanol would affect corn, food, and fuel prices. Use the estimated demand and supply functions, Equations 3.5 and 3.10, to estimate how much a shift of the demand curve to the left by 30% would affect the price of corn.

Equation 3.5

Q = 15.6 - 0.5p

Equation 3.10

Q = 10.2 + 0.25p,