ETHANOL BUSINESS

Do We Buy Ethanol (In Minnesota) Because We Have To?

November 21st, 2007 | Author: Mr Ethanol

Minnesota Public Radio:
Imagine you are driving through the Midwest and you need gasoline. Chances are your choice will be based on price. In some states, like Wisconsin, you can make another choice: Whether or not to buy a gas with ethanol in it. Many states, including Minnesota, require ethanol without asking if consumers want it, or if it’s environmentally sound.

You’re at this Wisconsin gas station. You’re scanning the pumps – octane 87, octane 93. One pump offers an ethanol blend, E-10, which is gas with 10 percent ethanol. The other pumps contain just gasoline. Wisconsin is one of the many states that offers consumers a choice.

Typically, the gas with ethanol is cheaper because it’s subsidized. So which do you pick? Has anyone ever asked you which you wanted?

Ethanol use across the country has increased because governors and legislators want something to reduce air emissions and petroleum dependence. They’re using ethanol to accomplish that.

Consumer interest is beside the point here. No study has been done on consumer preference. In some states, officials say annecdotally some consumers see ethanol as a great new fuel, while others say it’s bad for your engine and reduces mileage.
Studies have shown that producing ethanol bolsters local economies.

Minnesota has led the nation in ethanol use. All of the state’s gasoline is E-10, and Gov. Tim Pawlenty wants the state’s gas to contain 20 percent corn-based ethanol by 2013.

Greg Dierkers of the National Governors Association says each state takes its own approach to alternative fuels. In Indiana, state fleet vehicles must use ethanol-based gasoline. In Missouri, Dierkers says all gas will have to be E-10 by January 2008.

Read full article.

MPR Photo/Sea Stachura.

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