On 4/30/2014 12:04 PM, jim wrote:
....

And, that minor difficulty on the supply side that the blenders have no
choice but to put the vast majority of product out to meet the RFS

That is bull**** propaganda. When the gas stations try to
sell the more expensive 100% gasoline it just sits in their
tanks and gets old. Gas stations would sell even more ethanol
than they do now if the EPA lifted the limits on on the amount
allowed. The govt is doing everything it can to
sabotage ethanol and bolster oil company profits.
You are just to dumb to see it.

The station here in town that markets "100% gas" and "no ethanol" does a
land-rush business--the driveway is always occupied; they certainly have
no trouble in selling the product. It's generally about 10 cents or so
higher than the stations down the block.

as
there's no other gasoline-compatible product out there at the moment
that qualifies as the "R" part in RFS.

Sure there is . There is the mandated ethanol from cellulose.

There is no "mandated ethanol from cellulose" just as there is no
mandate for ethanol from grain (corn isn't the only grain used). The
mandate is for "renewable fuels" that doesn't require anything specific.

The deal is, of course, that at the moment the only gasoline-compatible
qualifying renewable is alcohol and the technology to produce alcohol
from in large volumes with US products being as we don't (and can't)
grow huge quantities of sugar cane economically is grain.

Cellulosic ethanol technology is still in its infancy and to be proven
to be scalable to large production. There are present incentives in
effect to promote these efforts; the largest of these is about 30 mi
from the house here but it won't be on line until later on this year;
they've just begun some pre-startup testing. The other two demo
projects in the US of roughly the same overall production level are in
Iowa and on roughly the same schedule. The total output of the above
when and if they make full projected output will be only about 60-70
MMgal/yr; while present production is on the order of 13-14 billion
(that's "billion with a B") gal/yr or just over 1/2 of 1% of current
production/use.

The limitations on ethanol use in the US are basically one of production
and demand--we just don't use that much more than we're producing at the
moment.

But no one pays attention to thjat mandatebecause it is not
profitable. The mandates are irrelevant. More ethanol
would be sold if the govt did not have regulations that
prevent it. The govt is doing everything it can to
sabotage ethanol and bolster oil company profits.
You are just to dumb to see it.

It's surprising and likely news to the builders of these facilities that
the US is sabotaging their efforts while meanwhile subsidizing them to
build them and creating, in essence, a mandatory market for their
product...

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