WATERTOWN, S.D. -- The Alternative Fuels Institute is optimistic about our energy future and wants Americans to know ethanol is the safest auto fuel on the market today. In fact, ethanol is on track to replace half of U.S. gasoline by 2020.
Gasoline's benzene, toxic particulates and other known human carcinogens are a leading cause of birth defects, and these toxics especially prey on children.
The good news is these toxics simply are not products of ethanol combustion or evaporative emissions, and America's huge safe renewable fuel resource corn ethanol alone is on a trend line to a 25 billion gallon annual production by 2020.
In 2000, we had less than 2 billion gallons of ethanol production, a 9 billion-bushel corn crop and significantly less than a 1 billion bushel corn carry-out. Nine years later, with similar planted acres, we have nearly a 13-billion-bushel corn crop, more than 12 billion gallons of ethanol production and a corn carry-out approaching 2 billion bushels.
If our nation opens safer, higher ethanol blends markets through a national ethanol blender pump distribution system, we can expect available ethanol supplies to exceed 50 billion gallons or nearly half of our trend line gasoline use by the year 2020.
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Today's gasoline use has declined to about 130 billion gallons and our auto fleet is in the midst of a major transition to more fuel efficient autos. Imported ethanol along with biomass ethanol production easily can supply an additional 25 billion gallons of ethanol when blender pumps open higher blends markets for safer ethanol.
Sen. Tom Harkin's visionary Consumer Fuels and Vehicle Choice Act, SB1627, requires autos to produce nearly all flexfuel vehicles and build a national ethanol blender pump distribution system to deliver safer, lower-volatility fuels serving health-conscious consumers. Higher ethanol blends are available today through several hundred blender pumps, and thousands of standard auto owners travel millions of trouble free miles each month on blends up to E40.
As blender pumps are more available nationally, we can expect gasoline's toxic evaporative and combustion emissions, nearly identical to cigarette smoke, to decline by more than half.
Most importantly we can expect bonuses in the form of better-informed, health-conscious fuel consumers, dramatic decreases in birth defects, childhood cancers and health care costs for America.
Editor's Note: Swayze, who farms in Wilmot S.D., is a board member of the Alternative Fuels Institute.
