06/14/07 Looking At Ethanol Growth

Looking at Ethanol Growth. I'm Greg Martin with today's Line On Agriculture. A recent release from Iowa State University said that the ethanol industry would soon go into a decline and profits would dry up. But that's not the way Tom Slunecka, Executive Director of the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council sees it. SLUNECKA: The ethanol industry continues to grow at a good pace. We'll have an additional 70 plants on board here within the year bringing our ability to service all of the demand that consumers are looking for by an additional 4 or 5 billion gallons so the ethanol industry is trying to do it's best to keep up with demand. One of the concerns about ethanol is the availability and Slunecka says while demand increases so do the number of pumps available. SLUNECKA: Ethanol is available in the form of E10 in over 45% of U.S. fuel. Most of the states across the country have it, there's only a few hold outs on the East coast that don't have it like Florida that don't have E10. E85 which is the gold standard for ethanol of course, they're opening several stations - really open every week nationally and there's starting to be a really good groundswell from some larger regional chains. One of the questions I get asked is whether or not you can use ethanol in the family vehicle and the answers is yes&and no. SLUNECKA: Well often times people talk about ethanol and they jump immediately to E85 and of course you do need to have a flex fuel vehicle in order to use E85. There are well over 6 million of these cars on the road today so there is a good likelihood that you are driving one. In order to make sure you are, check your owner's manual. If it's a newer vehicle it will have a yellow gas cap or even maybe a nice flex fuel badge on the back of that vehicle. And just in case the new vehicle you just bought doesn't accept flex fuels&uh&like mine, Slunecka says there still may be a way. SLUNECKA: There are a few companies that are coming out with conversion kits now days. Those are something I think could be a good thing in the near future. Several of these companies are supposedly coming out with conversion kits that are EPA approved which would allow you to convert your standard vehicle. That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.