Bodman concerned about high ethanol prices

[Eugene]

Bodman concerned about high ethanol prices

By Tom Doggett
Reuters
Friday, June 23, 2006; 1:11 PM

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Energy Secretary Sam Bodman said on Friday
he was concerned about this week's jump in ethanol prices which might
be passed on to consumers at the pump, but he said lifting the U.S.
duty on Brazilian ethanol imports won't increase supplies that much
to help.

"This is something that we're concerned about ... when I see that kind
of price for ethanol," Bodman told reporters in a telephone briefing.
Ethanol has jumped to $5 a gallon in the spot market.

However, Bodman dismissed the suggestion that either Congress or the
Bush administration, acting on its own, should lift the U.S. ethanol
import duty to bring in more supplies that would lower prices.

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Full article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/23/AR2006062300773.html

[JohnWxy]

1. Here is some more from the same article:

Bodman pointed out that more U.S. ethanol producing plants will be coming online this year and domestic supplies will increase.

Currently, 101 ethanol bio-refineries nationwide have the capacity to produce more than 4.8 billion gallons annually. There are 34 ethanol refineries and seven expansions under construction with a combined annual capacity of more than 2.2 billion gallons.     {this additional capacity, almost a 50% increase, will be coming on line over the next year and will have a marked impact on the price of ethanol which has spiked because oil companies decided to replace most of the MTBE in gasoline with ethanol in 2006. The total production capacity completed since the end of 2005 and still under construction represents a 60% increase over the total production of 2005.__JW}

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"Never has reducing our dependence on foreign oil been such a pressing issue," said Bodman. "We have the will and the means to replace significant quantities of foreign oil with home-grown fuel."

(Additional reporting by Chuck Abbott and Sophie Walker)