U.S. regulators cut annual requirements for how much ethanol must be mixed into the nation’s fuel supply. But the reductions were smaller than originally proposed, softening the blow to ethanol companies and their Farm Belt supporters. The Environmental Protection Agency on Monday said fuel companies will have to blend 18.11 billion gallons of corn-based ethanol and other biofuels into gasoline next year, up from the 17.4 billion it proposed in May, but well below targets laid out in a 2007 law. The EPA also eased rules retroactively for 2014 and 2015. Ethanol-company shares jumped Monday because the EPA’s reductions were less severe than investors had feared. Shares of Green Plains Inc., one of the biggest U.S. ethanol processors, rose 5%, while shares of smaller Pacific Ethanol Inc. surged 21%. Stock in Archer Daniels Midland Co., the biggest U.S. ethanol producer by capacity, edged up 0.1%, shedding earlier losses after […]