Ag and Energy Chiefs Say Ethanol is Moderating Gas Prices
The U.S. Secretaries of Agriculture and Energy sent a letter to Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) answering questions about biofuels production and food prices.
In the joint letter, Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman and Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer noted the complexity of the food and fuel pricing issues and cautioned the senator “against hasty judgments driven by highly questionable, agenda-driven calculations, some of which have been featured prominently in the popular press.”
“It is clear, however, that biofuels are already moderating gasoline prices,” they state in the letter. “That impact is likely to grow substantially as more biofuels come to market.”
The secretaries answered six specific questions related to the production of ethanol and biodiesel and the price of both food and fuel. Regarding food, they responded that biofuels accounted for approximately 3-4 percent of the overall rise in retail food prices domestically and as much as five percent globally. They note the many other factors contributing to higher commodity prices, including increased demand for food; lowered production and reduced stocks due to weather; export restrictions and – record prices for gasoline and diesel fuel that have increased “the costs of producing, transporting, and processing food products.”
As for fuel prices, the secretaries said, “We estimate that, if we had not been blending ethanol into gasoline, gasoline prices would be between 20 cents per gallon to 35 cents per gallon higher.”
2 Comments »
Bobby Fontaine
So what? It coats more mileage loss than it offsets the price of gasoline so what good is it doing. I have read consistent reports that it costs a great deal more mileage than the 3.3 percent Bodman says. The number is more like an average of 10 percent which is the amount that it is being added to gasoline, which means it is a complete loss to be using it.
Cindy Zimmerman
It is true that ethanol-enriched fuel gets less mileage than conventional gasoline. According to EPA, the reduction is an average of 3 percent for E10. Pure ethanol contains approximately 34 percent less energy per unit volume than gasoline, and therefore in theory, burning pure ethanol in a vehicle will result in a 34% reduction in miles per US gallon, given the same fuel economy, compared to burning pure gasoline. Therefore, using ten percent in a gasoline blend results in about a 3 percent loss of fuel efficiency. Actual results vary – some people say they get better mileage! It depends on the type of vehicle, car maintenance (like tire pressure), driving conditions (highway vs city), etc.
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