12/8/08 Refueling Ethanol

Refueling Ethanol. I'm Greg Martin with today's Line On Agriculture. What is next with ethanol? Big question. Now that gasoline prices have come back down and the automakers are asking for $34 billion in handouts, where does that leave the ethanol industry? It seems the U.S. easily slipped back into fossil fuel use when oil prices returned to a more normal level so ethanol production has slipped. But according to GM's CEO G. Richard Wagoner, ethanol may get a boost from the restructuring plan. WAGONER: Key highlights include a renewed and expanded commitment to new technologies, especially advanced propulsion and green jobs; increased production of fuel efficient vehicles. Matt Hartwig, with the Renewable Fuels Association says they are looking for a lot more cooperation with the big 3. HARTWIG: We would be looking to see an even stronger commitment to producing flexible fuel vehicles capable of running on higher level blends up to 85%. I think we would like to see them work more cooperatively with our industry and other stakeholders to raise the limit on how much ethanol can be in a gallon of gasoline. Today that arbitrary cap is set at 10%. That - while combining flex-fuel technology with that of hybrid and hybrid plug-ins to maximize mileage. HARTWIG: They will be developing the transportation technologies that will rely upon domestically produced ethanol and biodiesel as well as down the road when we start talking about synergistic relationships between plug-in vehicles using renewable energy from solar, wind or geothermal. There's a great opportunity here to be seized and I certainly hope that Congress and the automakers seize upon it. Hartwig points out the Detroit CEOs came to D.C. this time - not on private jets - but in flex-fuel and hybrid company cars. HARTWIG: I believe they have three vehicles that brought the executives to Capitol Hill and if I'm not mistaken at least a couple of them were flex fuel vehicles including soon to be released Buick Lucerne as a flexible fuel vehicle. Chevrolet has a number of models that run on  that can run on the E-85 as does Ford, as does Chrysler. That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.