Bush’s Alternative Fuel Use Growth Initiative Represents Over $45 Billion in Capital Investment Over Next 10 Years

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas). On Tuesday, President Bush proposed a nationwide initiative during his State of the Union address that would increase the use of alternative fuels by six and a half fold over the next ten years. That proposal represents a minimum of $45 billion in capital investment to get the additional capacity online by 2017. Some of the additional capacity could be generated from the square (corn producing) states, but it is vital that advancing technology in cellulosic feed stocks to produce fuel ethanol will be the key to reaching this ambitious goal.

Today, over 111 fuel ethanol plants operating in the United States have the capacity of producing over 5.4 billion gallons of ethanol annually. By the end of 2007, an additional 60 new plants are expected to be operating adding another 3.6 billion gallons of capacity bringing the country’s overall capacity for producing ethanol to 9 billion gallons annually.

Jay Brunson, Industrial Info’s Vice President of Alternative Fuels adds, “To add another 30 billion gallons of capacity with an average plant size of 150 million gallons annually, another 300 plus plants would have to be built over the next ten years. It is evident not only the sheer number of plants will increase, but the size of these plants will have to increase as well.”

Currently, Industrial Info is tracking over 19 billion gallons of potential biofuel production capacity. That represents both the ethanol and biodiesel markets. Perhaps what might be a more achievable goal over the next ten years is to increase the use of biofuels to a 35 billion-gallon per year level to displace foreign oil.

Only time will tell how big the Alternative Fuels Industry will get in the coming years and the industry is well on its way in helping to reducing the use of foreign oil. Crude oil prices will continue to fluctuate in the future and our country needs to have alternative fuel flexibility during times of high oil prices. The best way to continue to reduce our oil addiction is through alternative fuel use and market growth.

Industrial Info's Ethanol Production Database provides a comprehensive outline of all current development activities in the emerging synthetic fuels market. This database covers 134 ethanol plants currently in operation and 348 plants under development. It also covers 32 operational biodiesel plants and 81 biodiesel plants under development.

Industrial Info Resources (IIR) provides marketing communication services ranging from industrial database solutions to market forecasting, custom analytics, and specialty promotions that support high-level image campaigns.