Blunt supports ethanol-gasoline proposal

Missouri’s three ethanol plants, located in Macon, Malta Bend and Craig, produce about 115 million gallons of ethanol annually. A fourth plant is being constructed in Laddonia, and Blunt spokesperson Spence Jackson said others are in the planning stages. That anticipated growth is expected to produce enough blended fuel – about 350 million gallons – to meet the E-10 standard.

House Bills 1270 and 1027 both propose an E-10 regulation and were passed by the House Agriculture Policy Committee Feb. 14. Jackson said there is no indication of whether the proposal will make it through the House and Senate.

“It’s being debated by the legislature currently, and we hope that it will pass, but we don’t have any real sense of it right now,” he said.

Blunt’s proposal cites estimates from a recent study done by the University of Missouri that explored the possible economic impact of ethanol use in the state. The study predicts ethanol production at its full capacity would create $348 million annually in value-added income to the state’s economy and $746 million annually in economic activity.

The proposal also states corn farmers can expect a 5- to 15-cent-per-bushel increase for corn. The four ethanol plants in Missouri are projected to consume 55 million bushels of corn annual, raising the value of the state’s corn by $41 million at the farm level each year.

Aside from its economic impact, Blunt’s proposal notes the environmental benefits of ethanol use, as well as the overall reduction of dependence on foreign oil.

Some worry that producing ethanol requires the use of more energy than it creates, offsetting its economic benefit, but Becky Grisham of the Missouri Corn Growers Association dispels that idea.

“It takes energy to produce energy,” said Grisham, director of communications. “There have been approximately 20 surveys done over the last few decades, and the most recent one, according to USDA, says that … there’s a 67 percent energy gain, ultimately.”

Some smaller, independent gasoline retailers already distribute E-10 as a price advantage, Grisham said, but it’s the large oil companies that are fighting it.

“It’s the major oil companies who are vertically integrated who don’t want to allow this into the market to compete with their product,” she said. “A statewide requirement would allow ethanol to have access to that currently closed market.”

Minnesota, Montana and Hawaii already have enacted an E-10 requirement.

The state budget signed last year included $5.3 million in funding for the Ethanol Incentive Fund for 2006, as well as $2.7 million of the funds owed from previous years.