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Ethanol fits right into the new automobile standards

President Barack Obama announceda new set of mileage and emissions standards for the automobile industry on Tuesday. Under the plan, light trucks must average 30 miles per gallon and cars 39 miles per gallon by the year 2016. There is some concern as to how that will work for ethanol given the fact fuel mileage slips a bit withethanol. Matt Hartwig with the Renewable Fuels Association says ethanol fits right into the Administrations long-term plan to reduce our dependency on foreign oil. “We believe that ethanol will continue to play the important role that is has previously when we have seen fuel economy standardsrise and that is physically displacing imported barrels of oil.”

The President made the move towards higher fuel efficiency now as part of the restructuring of the American automobile industry. Hartwig says renewable fuels will be involved in that restructuring.”The auto industry is developing new technologies which actually capitalize on some of the unique characteristics and properties of ethanol.” He cites as an example utilizing the extraordinarily high octane rating of ethanol to offset some of the loss in mileage while improving theperformance of those engines. Hartwig says the Administration is, “Setting the bar high and telling technology developers to go make it happen.”