The expansion of the ethanol industry is allowing small communities all across the United States to benefit from the new jobs and economic opportunities the production of renewable fuels offers, the association said.
"Expanding ethanol production outside the traditional 'Corn Belt' is vital to setting America on the road toward energy [image-nocss] independence," said RFA president Bob Dinneen. "Increasing the production and use of ethanol in places like Florida is helping provide stability to our motor fuels market against the volatile and costly nature of the world oil market. Congratulations to Griffin U-Gas, Urbieta Oil, Protec Fuel Management and the people of Florida on the opening of the 2,000th E85 station and for their commitment to helping set America on a path toward greater energy independence."
Florida Agriculture & Consumer Services Commissioner Charles H. Bronson, whose "Farm to Fuel" initiative is designed to produce renewable energy from Florida-grown crops, agricultural wastes and residues, and other biomass, said, "As ethanol and other renewable fuels become more widespread, the demand for the biofuels produced on our farms and ranches will only increase. It will reduce our dependency on foreign oil and give agricultural producers in Florida alternative crops to keep their farming operations viable."
Willie Urbieta, president of U-Gas, said, "For me personally, it feels really good when I fuel up to know that I'm not sending money to countries that are not that friendly to us."
E85 is a blend of 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline and can only be used in flex-fuel vehicles (FFVs). There are nearly 8 million FFVs on the road today, the group said.
Separately, President Barack Obama said on Wednesday he wants to see new types of biofuels commercialized as quickly as possible, but the corn-based ethanol industry needs to remain viable in the meantime, said Reuters.
"My administration is committed to moving as quickly as possible to commercialize an array of emerging cellulosic technologies so that tomorrow's biofuels will be produced from sustainable biomass feedstocks and waste materials rather than corn," Obama wrote in a letter to a group of farm-state governors. (Click here to view the full letter.)
Most biofuel currently used in the United States is ethanol made from corn. The U.S. government wants to boost production of renewable fuels made from non-food crops like switchgrass and plant waste left over from harvesting grain.
"But this transition will be successful only if the first-generation biofuels industry remains viable in the near term," Obama said. Biofuels help reduce climate-changing greenhouse gas emissions, reducing the need for importing oil while creating jobs, he wrote.
The ethanol sector has been hit hard by high corn prices, lower oil prices and overcapacity, said Reuters. New types of biofuels are currently more expensive to produce than corn-based ethanol, it added.
Meanwhile, regulators and lawmakers are debating how to measure the impact of land-use change on the environment, for example, emissions released when corn production displaces other crops, giving farmers the incentive to turn forests into cropland.
Poor market conditions have threatened the development of new types of biofuels, the Governors' Biofuels Coalition told the President in a letter earlier this year, asking him to put forth a vision for biofuels and establish a task force on the debate over biofuels' greenhouse gas emissions. Obama established that task force earlier this month. (Click here for details.)
The governors also asked Obama to increase the maximum allowed limit for blending ethanol with gasoline to 13% from the current 10% level to expand the market.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is slated to rule on an industry request to increase the blend rate by December 1.
In his letter, Obama said the next generation of biofuels will be successful only if "longstanding artificial barriers to market expansion" are removed.
The federal Energy Information Administration (EIA) has recently implemented expanded data collection efforts to better capture ethanol, biodiesel and other renewable liquid fuel volumes, marking an important milestone in a multi-year effort to address the growing role of renewable fuels, the agency said in its most recent "This Week in Petroleum."
Congress enacted a mandate for the increased use of renewable motor fuels in the Energy Policy Act of 2005. That same law also authorized EIA to collect better data on renewable fuels. The need for better renewable fuels data became even more important when the mandate for renewable fuel use was significantly expanded by the Energy Independence & Security Act of 2007, which sets a target of 36 billion gallons of renewable fuel use by 2022.
In response to these developments, EIA requested, and was provided with, funding to improve its renewable fuels data collections. Following a redesign of our existing survey forms, and the creation of some new ones, the first phase of this project was completed in early 2009 with changes to the Petroleum Supply Monthly. The March PSM featuring January 2009 data, adds renewable fuels, displays fuel ethanol supply and demand and incorporates ethanol production into supply and disposition tables.
The biggest change to the PSM in 2010 will be breaking out ethanol-blended gasoline into high-level and low-level blends. This product split will provide information on supplies of E85, which falls into the high-level blend category. The same product split will be added to weekly surveys.
In 2011, EIA will focus on fuel ethanol volumes transported by rail, allowing estimation of movements of fuel ethanol between regions and more complete coverage of ethanol inventories by capturing fuel ethanol inventories in transit by rail.
EIA believes that the ongoing changes to its renewable fuels data collection efforts will provide useful and timely information for consumers of EIA petroleum supply data.
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