Ethanol Could Help State Gas Supply Problems

“Additive Blamed for Gas Price Rise” (July 3) missed the mark on several key points highlighted at the hearing.

The California Energy Commission and the Federal Energy Information Agency testified in their comments that the main culprit behind gas price spikes was not the changeover from MTBE but high crude prices combined with refinery outages. The ethanol supply is plentiful and the price is cheaper than gasoline’s.

The other point that was highlighted is California’s growing imbalance between fuel supply and demand. Ethanol can help in this regard as it is an independent source of supply that could provide 10% of all the fuel needs tomorrow if refiners chose to use it at higher volumes. California can and should lead the nation in renewable ethanol production. The California Energy Commission estimates that there is enough biomass in the state to produce more than 3 billion gallons of renewable ethanol a year.

Neil Koehler

California Renewable

Fuels Partnership

Davis, Calif.