Ethanol. Right. Now.

New blender pump and FFV bills are exactly what we need

A bipartisan bill was introduced today in the U.S. House of Representatives by Congresswoman Stephanie Herseth Sandlin and by Congressman Adrian Smith, the "Consumer Fuels Choice Act."

The bill will improve consumer choice at the pump by providing grants for the installation of blender pumps.  As shown here, a blender pump offers motorists with a variety of choices from straight unleaded gasoline up through ethanol blends of up to 85 percent.  This particular pump offers unleaded, E20, E30, E50, and E85.  Blender pumps take up the same amount of space as a standard pump, but use two underground tanks (typically one with unleaded and one with E85) to mix the two fuels together according to what selection the customer makes at the pump.

In addition, Congresswoman Herseth Sandlin has also introduced a bill to increase the number of Flexible Fuel Vehicles (FFVs) available to motorists.  These two pieces of the puzzle -- blender pumps and FFVs -- will work together to unlock the possibility of U.S. energy independence. 

Today our nation's transportation system is built around oil, and this status quo officially limits biofuels like ethanol to only a 10% slice of the market -- or a 90% petroleum mandate, to look at it from another perspective.  Vehicles are made to run on 90% petroleum, fuel dispensers are made to pump 90% petroleum, and the U.S. EPA enforces the 90% petroleum per gallon rule through its regulations.

Blender pumps and FFVs will build much-needed flexibility into the nation's fuel system.  If vehicles and pumps had the flexibility to use and dispense any blend of fuel, consumers would finally have choices instead of the 90% petroleum mandate we have today.  If consumers prefer gasoline, they would have that choice.  But if they want to use something more renewable and affordable, they could choose from several different biofuel options instead.  Energy independence cannot come until we have meaningful choice.  We hope these key pieces of legislation can be enacted soon.

Posted by: Kristin Brekke

Energy legislation needs to include these two provisions

The American Coalition for Ethanol, the National Corn Growers Association, and the Renewable Fuels Association wrote a letter today to U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, encouraging him to include two key provisions in upcoming energy legislation - S. 1627, the Consumer Fuels and Vehicles Choice Act, and S. 3231, the Green Jobs Act.

"As you work to develop legislation to address the Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico and
meet America’s many other energy challenges, we are writing to encourage you to include two bills in
your broad energy legislation that will promote the further production and use of biofuels in the United
States and thus help wean us off our dependence on oil: 1) the Consumer Fuels and Vehicle Choice Act
(CHOICE Act), S. 1627, and 2) the Grow Renewable Energy from Ethanol Naturally Jobs Act, or 'GREEN
Jobs Act,' of 2010, S. 3231."

Read the letter in its entirety here.

Join the conversation about ethanol, E15, and EPA

What do you think about the EPA's delay of a decision on E15?  Join the conversation happening right now on the social network site, Ethanol Collective: www.ethanolcollective.com

EPA delays E15 decision once again

EPA is required by law to make a decision on the request to allow the use of cleaner burning blends of up to 15 percent ethanol, and by the time they actually make a decision, it will be a full year later than the law requires. Every addict needs enablers, but frankly we could not have imagined the Environmental Protection Agency would be one of the major defenders of the status quo that is now fouling beaches from Louisiana to Florida.

We also have to wonder who is influencing EPA when they agree it will be impossible to meet the Renewable Fuels Standard but refuse to remove the requirement that fuel contain a minimum of 90 percent petroleum. That decision can only be good news for the likes of BP and ExxonMobil, and anyone else who chooses to ignore the dangers of relying on unstable and hostile foreign regimes for our fuel, or the dangers of drilling two miles below the ocean.

EPA could be accused of slow-walking this E15 decision, but that would imply that progress is being made. This decision has been pushed back an entire year, and has gone from making cleaner burning E15 available to all cars, to only 2001 and newer cars, and now possibly to only those made after 2007. Those vehicles were practically fresh off the assembly line when the data was submitted proving blends beyond E10 are safe for all vehicles, and now two years and millions of dollars have been wasted as EPA defends the status quo. Meanwhile, oil has been spilling from the Gulf of Mexico for 60 days and counting. What do government bureaucrats need to see to be convinced that our nation desperately needs take action to reduce our use of oil?

When ACE met with EPA in March of this year, we were told that by mid-year EPA was planning to approve E15 for 2001 and newer vehicles, a commitment the Agency put in writing in a December 1 letter. While there are many practical challenges to implementing E15 for only 2001 and newer vehicles, it may have been better than the status quo of being limited to only E10. But to add insult to injury, EPA is now indicating that they will consider E15 for only vehicles made after the 2007 model year – only 20 percent of the U.S. fleet. Even if every single vehicle made after 2007 used E15 every time it filled up, it would barely allow the U.S. to meet the 2012 Renewable Fuels Standard requirement.

As oil is ruining livelihoods and closing businesses, the economic and job-creation benefit of ethanol is being told it must wait in the wings. With the price of ethanol being almost a dollar less per gallon than gasoline today, EPA’s approval of a 5 percent increase in the ethanol content could save the U.S. more than $19 billion in fuel expenditures every year – almost as much as BP has committed so far to clean up the damage that oil has done in the Gulf.

ACE is encouraging all ethanol supporters to contact their Members of Congress to urge their support of legislation for more flexible fuel vehicles and blender pumps, such as S. 1627, the Harkin-Lugar ‘Consumer Fuels and Vehicles Choice Act.’ More FFVs and blender pumps would bring flexibility into the U.S. fuel system and give consumers greater fuel choice, while bypassing the bureaucracy that is preventing the cleaner alternative fuels from reaching the marketplace.

Posted by: Brian Jennings

Ethanol responds to new environmental group stall tactics

The American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE), Growth Energy, the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA), and the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) today countered the tired claims of the Environmental Working Group (EWG) that American ethanol is not a sound investment.

Criticizing the tax incentive provided for the use of ethanol is a misleading exercise if proper context is not provided. A recent International Energy Agency report concluded the world spent $550 billion in subsidies for fossil fuels in 2008 alone. The approximately $4.5 billion spent to increase America’s use of domestically produced ethanol in 2008 is a bargain by comparison.

Equally misleading is a discussion of tax incentives without appropriately attributing increases in economic activity resulting from those incentives. In 2009 alone, U.S. ethanol production helped nearly 400,000 Americans keep their jobs or find a new one, added more than $15 billion to federal, state and local government tax revenues, and displaced more than 360 million barrels of imported oil.

“It’s disappointing that some in the environmental community continue to have an irrational and unsophisticated notion of how to reduce fossil fuel use,” said Brian Jennings, Executive Vice President of the American Coalition for Ethanol. “Some say the solution is to get rid of corn-based ethanol today, in hopes that some other potentially promising, but not yet commercialized fuel will be available tomorrow. The result would be more pain at the pump and more pollution for the planet. Ethanol is the only commercially available alternative to gasoline today, and removing it from our nation’s fuel supply would mean more oil use – and we ought to learn from the painful and ongoing lesson in the Gulf of Mexico that more oil is simply not a sustainable path.”

“It is unfortunate that groups purporting to represent the environment are still criticizing the only alternative fuel – domestic ethanol – that reduces our dependence on foreign oil,” said Tom Buis, CEO of Growth Energy.

“Family farmers in the U.S. have provided us with five record crops since 2005, and we're growing 20 percent more corn per acre than any other nation," said NCGA President Darrin Ihnen. "For American corn farmers, the ethanol industry provides the opportunity to add value added to our commodity while expanding the role of U.S. agriculture in our movement toward greater energy self-reliance. It needs and deserves the support it's getting in Washington.”

“America’s investment in domestic renewable fuels is only just beginning to pay dividends,” said RFA President and CEO Bob Dinneen. “Current technologies are directly replacing oil-based fuels in American gas tanks and creating tens of thousands of jobs. New technologies are coming online that will expand ethanol’s economic benefit while continuing to improve the industry’s environmental footprint and energy security contribution. The environmental community remains shortsighted in its dismissal of ethanol, particularly as the devastating impacts of our oil addiction are currently on full display.”

Agricultural production and ethanol biorefining continue to become increasingly efficient. According to a recent article in the scientific journal Biotechnology Letters, ethanol production alone has seen a 28 percent reduction in energy use, a 32 percent reduction in water use, and a 5.3 percent increase in ethanol yields all in less than a decade. Conversely, deep water drilling and tar sands extraction continue to drive oil’s carbon footprint even higher.

This assault from EWG is just the latest in a line of impractical attacks the environmental community has launched against American ethanol production.  Recently, environmental activists suggested that ethanol use in America would reduce our oil consumption – a good thing – and thus drive down the world price of oil – also a good thing. As a result, other nations would use more oil. Ergo, according to their tortured logic, ethanol must be penalized for the carbon emissions from the increase in oil use in other nations. Curiously, EWG suggests that more could be gained from proper tire inflation and obeying the speed limit. Yet, under the current logic of the environmental community, all of those activities would have to be penalized for increasing oil use elsewhere. 

“No other option exists today that can match ethanol’s ability to reduce oil use in American vehicles,” the groups stated.  “Rather than erecting roadblocks, we would welcome the constructive input of the environmental community to expand our use of renewable fuels and reduce our need for oil. That starts by allowing the use of 15 percent ethanol blends.”

Ethanol offers big savings for motorists over Memorial Day holiday

With ethanol trading for nearly a dollar less than gasoline at the rack, motorists can capture those savings at the pump by choosing ethanol-blended fuel.  The savings over the recent Memorial Day holiday were significant.

According to fuel price data* published May 24, the E10 blend is an average 9.5 cents per gallon lower than straight gasoline right now.  Based on AAA’s expected travel distances** for the holiday weekend and a national average gas price of $2.85 per gallon, this 9.5 cent discount for E10 could have equaled $95.8 million in savings nationwide.

The savings on E15 would be nearly 14 cents per gallon.  If the E15 blend was available nationwide, the total savings for motorists this holiday weekend could reach $138 million.  The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is expected to make its ruling this summer on whether to allow all consumers access to the 15 percent ethanol blend.

At the current ethanol price, the E30 blend is 28.5 cents per gallon less than gasoline, and E85 is 75 cents less per gallon.

“Every little bit of cost savings helps in a tight economy, and American families are saving money at the pump thanks to the availability of ethanol,” said Ron Lamberty, Vice President / Market Development for the American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE), the nation’s largest grassroots ethanol association.  “With the wide spread right now between ethanol and gasoline prices, the higher the ethanol content per gallon of your fuel, the higher the savings.”

“Motorists deserve to have access to these cost-effective fuels at the pump instead of just being limited by government red tape and Big Oil’s grip on the market,” said Brian Jennings, Executive Vice President of ACE.  “We need to give consumers the power to choose whatever fuel is most affordable by making flexible fuel vehicles and blender pumps more widely available.”

* Source: Oil Price Information Service (OPIS) Chicago Average Rack Price for the week ending May 21, 2010

** Source: AAA Memorial Day 2010 Travel Forecast, May 20, 2010