PRESIDENT GEORGE W. Bush will call for a five-fold increase in US ethanol consumption to 35bn gal/year by 2017 as part of a plan to reduce national gasoline consumption by 20% by that year.In connection to last week's State of the Union, address, the White House said Bush also will call for increased domestic oil and gas production, including drilling in a small area of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) in northern Alaska.Bush's anticipated call for environmentally secure drilling in the wildlife refuge will require congressional approval that is not thought likely from the new Democrat majority on Capitol Hill.The White House made no mention of a Bush call for more offshore energy production, a goal long sought by US chemical producers - who are dependent on natural gas as a feedstock -and a broad array of other manufacturing sectors.The president also wants to double the strategic petroleum reserve to 1.5bn bbls by 2027, to give US energy consumers a further buffer against oil supply disruptions such as the double hurricanes that ravaged the US Gulf energy coast in late 2005.Bush also is seeking higher fuel-saving standards for US-made automobiles, a goal shared by many in Congress, especially among Democrats.A boost to 35bn gal/year of ethanol within 10 years would displace 15% of projected annual US gasoline use in 2017, the White House said. The remaining 5% reduction in US gasoline use by that year will come from reduced automotive consumption and other fuel efficiencies.Current US ethanol production, almost wholly from corn, is some 5.4bn gal/year. Energy legislation passed in 2005 requires a boost in US ethanol consumption to 7.5bn gal/year by 2012, but Bush's new 30bn gal/year goal for 2017 would raise the target substantially.Reaching that level of bio-based ethanol output might be beyond the reach of corn-based production, and Bush's plan appears to anticipate that by putting more emphasis on cellulosic ethanol manufacturing.Instead of corn, cellulosic ethanol production uses as feedstock agricultural waste such as corn stover and wheat chaff or inedible plant crops such as switch grass.
But the technology is still in its infancy.The White House said Bush soon will present to Congress a farm bill proposal that will include $2bn in loans for construction of cellulosic ethanol plants as a means of jump-starting wide-scale production.The president's farm bill also will include more than $1.6bn in new funding over 10 years for bio-energy research and other energy innovations.President seeks to cut gasoline usage by 20%ICIS Chemical Business America
