Didn't they also sign into law the part that said that these fuels must reduce CO2 emissions by atleast 20%.

Or did that part of the bill get axed?

The fuels must reduce CO2 by 20%, but corn ethanol that is fired via natural gas/biomass is considered to meet those requirement regardless of the truth. At least coal based ethanol plants are excluded...

Figures there would be a loophole like that.

They are heading towards E10 nationwide, but I hope that we get their with cellulose and not corn. In California, a lot of places are already at E10 I think. The rumor had it that high octane was E10, which turns out not necessarily to be the case. All 3 grades are E10 in many places.

I figured that if they took 89 octane mid grade and blended it with ethanol to get E10, they would bring the octane up to the 91 high grade figure. That might allow them just to make 2 grades and not have to hydro crack further to get the high octane grade.

There were studies done that showed NO car manufacturer requires mid grade 89 octane to be run in their cars. It said that cars are made to run on 87 or 91 and the mid grade is not really needed. That would eliminate the extra work refining, transporting and pumping that extra grade of fuel.

I figured that with the refinery capacity tight nation wide, the blending of ethanol has kept the refinery capacity utilization at acceptable levels. Now you can run 90% utilized instead of 95% and get the output by blending it with ethanol, that you do not have to refine.

So were are they going to find all the ethanol required to achieve that number, current production only cover 2 to 3% , unless they massively import ethanol from Brazil, I don't see this happening

This is just about the worst thing they could mandate. Corn and wheat are already at record prices. How many people are going to go hungry so that fat rich americans can fill their tank with ethanol?

All the neo cons are in a blather about illegal immigration and then they do something like this. One of the big reasons people come here from Mexico is they can not feed their kids with the poor wages and high food prices back home.

How many people are going to be put out of work by the dead zone in the gulf of Mexico that gets bigger every year. That dead zone is there from run off from farms in the mid west growing corn for ethanol.

Why not build some mass transit that runs on electricity and forget this bio fuel nonsense.

It may be a law that follows what they can supply, so that there is no back sliding. The agriculture and commerce departments say that we can make 7 billion gallons this year, so the law requires that it get used in gasoline.

I don't view ethanol as renewable. The corn fields in Iowa have a lot of topsoil, but it too won't last forever. I think ethanol is a big disaster.

Current ethanol production capacity compares to 7.9 billion gallons of ethanol. http://www.ethanolrfa.org/industry/locations/ You add the 3 billion or so that will go online during the next 11 months and the 7.8% will be satisfied. The biggest threat is the price of corn. It is going up at is now critically harming profits in the US ethanol industry. That could hold further domestic growth because importing Brazilian ethanol will be cheaper even with a tariff.

The ethanol producers are in a bad position being totally dependent on corn. Any analysis of a business plan totally dependent on one input source would bring up red flags.

That is why I favor gasification. You can use many different inputs and produce many different outputs. It gives the facility more flexabily and lower business risk.

@sjc:

You will not find 89 octane at any American gas station. Their tanks have 87 and premium, which may be 91-93 depending on the brand. What is dispensed as mid-grade, at 89 octane, is just a blend of regular and premium in the correct proportions to deliver 89 octane. It's not a distinct product in the refining process or in the supply chain.