Washington, D.C., March 20, 2025: Speaking before the Advanced Bioeconomy Leadership Conference in Washington, D.C, today, Clean Fuels Development Coalition (CFDC) Executive Director Doug Durante said his primary objective for the year was simply to get more ethanol into gasoline.
This was in response to a question put to Durante and other panelists in the plenary policy session which was to identify one thing that they felt could be accomplished with the current Administration that fit with their organization’s priorities.
“We just spent four years where the metric of value was carbon reduction, and now we are being told by the White House and Republican Congress they don’t care about that anymore. So, if the emphasis is on domestic energy and economic development, ethanol still brings that to the table and in so doing save American agriculture from what could be a true crisis.”
With the pendulum swinging back to liquid fuels and internal combustion engines there will be growing demand for high octane gasoline, he said. Refinery constraints and ethanol’s favorable economics make sense for refiners to outsource their octane and free up crude oil for other petroleum based products.
Durante added “It is outrageous that we have been held to 10% blends when there is irrefutable evidence supporting blends of 20 and 30%. We can make a high octane E30 fuel using today’s blendstock and provide a premium grade at regular unleaded prices, resulting in substantial savings to consumers and creating demand for billions of bushels new corn demand.”
“Since there is no vapor pressure increase with higher blends, all we ask is for EPA to open the market and get out of the way. Simply allowing ethanol to be used at its highest value takes the unknowns in the current political climate of tax incentives, export markets, and the RFS out of play. The reality is those support mechanisms may go away or be significantly reduced but corn ethanol’s value proposition transcends those programs.”
Held at the historic Mayflower Hotel in Washington. D.C., the ABLC is the largest and most diverse conference in the world, bringing to together every aspect of the Bio and Renewable communities.