U.S. seen short of Bush's ethanol plan - Yahoo! News

U.S. seen short of Bush's ethanol plan -

why isn't the US pushing biodiesel as had as ethanol ? - you've got to suspect the corn growers and Archer Daniels are the key protagonists behind this


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government's top energy forecaster said on Wednesday that fuel ethanol production in a decade will fall short of what
President George W. Bush' name=c1> SEARCHNews News Photos Images Web' name=c3> President George W. Bush says is needed to help cut America's oil imports.
In his State of the Union speech to Congress last month, Bush said the country should increase its production of ethanol and alternatives fuels to 35 billion gallons by 2017.
But, after detailing his agency's take on future U.S. energy supplies to lawmakers, Guy Caruso, the head of the federal Energy Information Administration, told reporters: "We don't have the (Bush) goal in our outlook."
The EIA is the independent analytical arm of the Energy Department.
Caruso said ethanol was "basically" the main alternative fuel that will be available over the next decade. His comments reiterated remarks made to Reuters by other EIA officials last week that the agency expects ethanol output to be only about 11.5 billion gallons in 2017.
White House and Energy Department officials dispute EIA's long-term forecast, saying American ingenuity will create the technological breakthroughs necessary to meet Bush's ethanol and alternative fuel goal of 35 billion gallons in a decade.
Key to Bush's plan is bringing down the cost of making ethanol from cellulosic sources, like forest and agricultural wastes, to a price closer to making ethanol from corn, the current popular production method.
However, Caruso said the EIA predicts only a "minimum amount" of cellulosic ethanol production in 2017. The agency forecast sees 94 percent of U.S. ethanol supplies in a decade still made from corn, 2 percent from cellulose and 4 percent coming from imports, which are typically derived from sugar.
Caruso acknowledged that the EIA's ethanol forecast was based on existing policies, economics and technology. "We're trying to provide the best projections based on the current information," he said.
The EIA was never asked to analyze the president's plan and the agency still hasn't seen details on it, Caruso said.
Dan Arvizu, who heads the Energy Department's Colorado-based National Renewable Energy Laboratory, told reporters on Tuesday that cellulosic ethanol should be price-competitive with corn ethanol in 5 years.
Arvizu said cellulosic ethanol production could be as high as 6 billion gallons a year in 2017, while corn ethanol will be 15 billion gallons. That would also be short of Bush's goal.
To help carry out Bush's plan, the Energy Department on Wednesday awarded $385 million in grants to help finance six refineries that will make cellulosic ethanol.
"We are very excited about the prospects for cellulosic ethanol," said U.S. Energy Secretary Sam Bodman.
Separately, a coalition of farm, energy and business groups on Wednesday called for Congress to provide almost $65 billion in financial incentives over five years to boost U.S. ethanol and renewable fuels production.