Ethanol Switchover Could Stoke Summer Gasoline Prices

WASHINGTON (Dow Jones) -- The drive to produce cleaner-burning fuel could lead to gasoline price spikes in some areas of the country as ethanol markets remain tight throughout the summer, government and industry officials are warning.

These hikes would be on top of the 25-cents-a-gallon average increase in prices at the pump already expected this summer compared with last year, according to the Energy Department.

Ethanol is a home-grown renewable fuel made primarily from corn feedstock that can be blended with gasoline to make it burner cleaner. In August 2005President Bush signed legislation creating a national renewable fuels standard to boost the use of renewable fuels such as ethanol.

While the domestic ethanol industry has ratcheted up production over the past year, a number of factors have pumped up demand for the biofuel and created supply concerns.

http://www.nasdaq.com//aspxcontent/newsstory.aspx?textpath=20060418\ACQDJON200604181911DOWJONESDJONLINE000948.htm&cdtime=04%2f18%2f2006%20+7%3a11PM

I doubt they could afford the 25 cent increase AND the 'switchover' from gasoline to...yes you guessed it; gasoline. :eyes:

and their oil deliveries are interuupted, and their customers like China have to get their oil from the same place we get ours, biofuels will look even better as an alternative. Don't let the pertoleum industry get anywhere near the supply chain though, or the prices will be manipulated just like gas has been for the past 30 years.

Biofuel production isn't looking so good this year, what with the drought and all.

on my gas pumps this past week. I actually inject ethanol into my intake to lower air temperatures on my supercharged drag race car so this is an interesting turn of events. I could be burning up to 15-20% ethanol at the drag strip.

it will be runaway consumerism that does it!

"I'd like a gallon of Exxon-Unleaded DoublePlusGood with 7% Environ-Ethanol."

If he really cared about the planet, he would have gone with 8%!

Of course, it was one of Scalia's proudest moments denying the case.

I'm glad that I'm not at the end of the trail for ethanol. They can't deliver it by pipeline since it absorbs water (sounds like the pipelines leak to me) so they ship by tanker. Rail or over the road, the price of ethanol is going to be higher on the coasts than here in the midwest.

a little over the top but it gets its message across.

http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2006/apr/18/summer_forecast_doesnt_hold_water/

They are comparing the potential to the Dust Bowl of the 1930's!

Besides the cost of food going up, where are we going to get ethanol when the fields are dry and dead?