Secretary of Agriculture Focuses on Increased Ethanol Use

The head of the US Department of Agriculture pumped gas into a white SUV in Nashville today as a part of the Obama administration’s push to increase ethanol use.  

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack congratulated the owners of a gas station that offers E-85 fuel.  It’s a mixture of ethanol and gasoline that can only be used by flex fuel vehicles.  About 2,300 stations nationwide currently offer flex fuels, a number that the administration wants to quadruple in the next five years.

The push comes as both Democrats and Republicans have voiced concerns that using more ethanol will lead to more corn farming subsidies. Vilsack hopes that if Congress chooses to cut subsidies, it will at least do it gradually.

“And we know that if we end the incentives too abruptly, we’re going to lose jobs and lose production capacity.  So our hope is that as congress considers what to do with these incentives, they create a glide-path towards ultimate elimination of them as this industry matures.”

Secretary Vilsack says that using more ethanol will reduce the nation’s dependence on foreign oil and make gas prices fall.

There are currently one hundred forty two thousand flexible fuel vehicles and thirty three E-85 pumps in the state of Tennessee.

Web Extra:

Increased use of ethanol raises concerns about rising food costs.  Some feel that food will become more expensive as the demand for corn goes up. Secretary Vilsack says that oil prices play an even larger role in the price of food.  He says that increased use of ethanol will cause gas prices to go down, lowering the overall cost of food.

“What we found was that 90 percent of the increase in food costs was something other than ethanol production.  It was a relatively small percentage; 10 percent of the food cost increase was attributable to ethanol.”