EPA Again Delays Decision on Fuel-Ethanol Blend Rate Increase

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced that it will delay a decision on increasing the fuel-ethanol blend rate until the fall of 2010. Currently, ethanol can be blended to a maximum of only 10% with petroleum gasoline for consumers. Producers would like to increase this rate to 15%, which would obviously increase the demand for the renewable fuel.

The EPA says more that further testing needs to be conducted on vehicles to see how well they perform with a higher-ethanol blend. The agency said preliminary results "look good," but the increased blend may only be approved for use in 2007 and later model vehicles.

Increasing the blend rate to 15% would mean an increase in ethanol demand to a potential 6.5 billion gallons, displacing more than 200 million barrels of imported crude oil.

Currently there are 212 fuel ethanol plants operating in North America with the capacity of producing more than 13.6 billion gallons of the renewable fuel. With plants currently under construction and expansions under way, the industry is expected to grow by an additional 1.2 billion gallons by the end of 2011.

Industrial Info's Databases provide a comprehensive outline of all current development activities in the emerging alternative fuels market. Industrial Info's North American Ethanol Database covers 203 plants in operation and 358 plants under various development phases. Industrial Info's North American Biodiesel Database covers 153 operational plants and 72 plants under development. Industrial Info's North American Wood Fuel Pellet Database includes 59 operational plants producing greater than 25,000 tons annually, and 37 projects under way.

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