By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, May 25 -- The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee has approved a section of the proposed comprehensive energy bill that would phase in between 2006 and 2012 a requirement that US gasoline contain 8 billion gal/year of renewable additives.
The proposed 2012 volume would more than double the current amount of ethanol entering gasoline streams. The House has passed a bill setting the ethanol mandate at 5 billion gal/year.
Oil industry groups opposed the Senate measure.
Bob Slaughter, president of the National Petrochemical and Refiners Association (NPRA), said, the Senate mandate would "make it more difficult and costly for refiners and petrochemical manufacturers to provide the fuels and petrochemical products that the nation's economy and American consumers depend upon." He added, "Mandates of any kind are counterproductive and inevitably result in market inefficiencies."
Slaughter said NPRA, which opposes an ethanol mandate of any size, would continue to voice concerns about the impact of the mandate on gasoline supply as the consideration of energy legislation proceeds.
The American Petroleum Institute, which supports the 5 billion gal/year ethanol mandate, opposed the increase in the Senate measure.
"If enacted into law as part of comprehensive energy policy," API said in a statement, "the 8 billion gal standard would mean higher energy costs for consumers, according to the US Energy Information Administration."
