Colorado Corn

Congress returned home this week to spend some much-needed time meeting with and listening to the voters that elected them into office. Now is the perfect time for growers to reach contact their members of Congress and remind them why the Renewable Fuel Standard is important to all Americans, such as by saving money at the gas station.

Getting E15 deployed in as many locations as quickly as possible is a critical task for the ethanol industry. We’re pretty much at the blend wall. With wholesale ethanol prices around $1 per gallon lower than wholesale gasoline, you can be assured that the maximum blending is occurring right now, yet the monthly ending stocks reported by the Energy Information Agency continue to set record highs. The high rate of blending was confirmed by the RFA newsletter that came in while I was writing this. Only 3 percent of the gasoline used in the U.S. is NOT blended with ethanol.

More Ethanol, Lower Gas Prices

With gas prices again on the rise throughout the United States, many consumers are driving less or switching to cars and trucks that use less fuel. And gas is certainly on the rise for some time to come, with the U.S. Energy Information Agency estimating the average retail cost of gasoline to be $3.79 per gallon in 2012 and $3.72 per gallon in 2013.

Sens. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash, and Richard Lugar, R-Ind., have unveiled legislation that would promote the production of flex-fuel vehicles. Under the bill, 50% of new vehicles must be able to run on nonpetroleum fuels by 2015, rising to 80% in 2018. "Phasing in vehicles that can run on fuels other than petroleum will allow a whole host of new domestic sources of transportation fuel to come online, which should reduce our dangerous overdependence on foreign oil and help keep American dollars here at home," Cantwell said.