05/21/08 Ethanol education

When the green flag drops Sunday at Indianapolis 33 cars will streak across the yard of bricks and race for 500 miles. For the second year in a row the entire field is powered by ethanol. Indiana corn growers are using the race to promote ethanol use. From the sounds of things at a recent promotion a lot of education needs to take place. COMMENTS "Have you ever used ethanol before? No. Do you know they're putting ten percent ethanol in your vehicle right now? I don't know anything about it right now so I'll kind of hold off on it until you hear more about it. I never had it before but if it saves me money it'll be great. Do you know what it's made out of? Corn oil. Have you ever used ethanol in you vehicle before? No. No, I have not. Do you know your regular gas has ten percent ethanol in it? Yes I do. Do you think ethanol is a good fuel? We'll see. I don't know. And Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer is doing the education thing by debunking reports recently that corn based ethanol is the driving force behind the sharp rise in food prices. SCHAFER "While bio-energy generation does have some effect on prices it is not a major effect, it's not even a big effect." This is flex-fuel day at Indy and the corn farmers are doing their education programs at the Speedway hoping to also get free TV time on Sunday's race broadcast. Today's Idaho Ag News Bill Scott