Future Ethanol Growth Not Responsible For Increasing Gas Prices

Oil company officials have recently made comments attempting to blame current high gas prices on their concern over future ethanol growth.  The petroleum industry’s latest attack on ethanol is a rather preposterous attempt to blame ethanol for petroleum’s failure to meet the growing energy needs of the U.S.

In recent quarters, the petroleum sector has justified record profits by saying most of the money is being reinvested into increased exploration and production.  But now they are saying that this hasn’t happened, and they don’t plan for it to happen in the future.  Isn’t that the real story here?

Last spring when oil companies shorted the fuel supply by eliminating MTBE, gas prices went up and they complained that there wasn’t enough ethanol.  Now these companies are saying that they’re afraid to expand because ethanol is getting too big.  Which is it?

In hearings before Congress last year, oil company heads told of plans to increase fuel production by expanding refinery capacity by up to 1.8 million barrels per day – an increase of 10 percent over 5 years.

Prior to these comments, the oil industry has expressed a very different opinion of the size and scope of the ethanol industry – voicing concerns that ethanol production will never be big enough to meet the oil industry’s demand.

While the petroleum industry defends its very profitable status quo, the farmers and businesses comprising the U.S. ethanol industry are taking action to do something about America’s energy supply situation – producing a clean, renewable, homegrown alternative fuel.  Ethanol is part of the solution, and petroleum’s attempts to claim otherwise should be taken with a very large grain of salt.