Ethanol fuel use – Our program partners have reached an agreement with the IRL to replace methanol, in use since the 1960s, with ethanol as its mandated fuel, beginning with a blend during the 2006 season and moving to a full 100% ethanol fuel spec by 2007. Promotional activities surrounding this historic agreement began in early 2005, with a national kick-off announcement on March 3 in Washington D.C.

The Ethanol Indy Racing program is funded by an industry-wide coalition of companies including the leading ethanol plant design/build engineering firms, their equipment and process technology vendors, and the plants that they have built and manage.  Combined, these firms and plants represent about one half of all U.S. ethanol production.

The promotional link with the Indy Racing League, and the advertising push behind it, represent the first time in the history of the industry that a wide range of companies have pooled their resources for the purposes of a coherent, national education and awareness campaign.

Ethanol is a high-octane, high-performance fuel that is clean-burning, renewable and domestically produced. As a growing component of our gasoline supply, it delivers improved vehicle performance while reducing emissions and improving air quality. By reducing foreign oil imports, ethanol creates American jobs and provides value-added markets to bolster agriculture and rural America. Currently enjoying record growth, the ethanol industry will continue to play a larger role in meeting our nation's energy needs.

Today, 81 ethanol plants produce more than 3.4 billion gallons of ethanol annually. Compared to total U.S. gasoline consumption of approximately 160 billion gallons annually, ethanol represents about 2% of our gasoline supply. However, in actual distribution, ethanol is blended at 10% in many Midwest markets, 5-7% in California and the Northeast, and is absent from other markets.

Sixteen additional plants with more than 550 million gallons of production capacity are under construction. Of a total of 97 current or pending ethanol plants, 48 – roughly half -- are farmer-owned. Ethanol is championed as one of the primary business development priorities for both the American Farm Bureau and the National Corn Growers Association, and the economic boost from the ethanol industry is deeply felt in farming communities throughout the Midwest.

At a construction cost of $40-$60 million per plant, and with an average of 12-15 plants under construction at any one time over the past three years, current ethanol industry investment has consistently been at the $500 million level.

U.S. ethanol production is on pace to roughly double in the next 5 to 8 years -- to at least 5 billion gallons annually -- by 2012, with many of our program partners on the supply side of the industry predicting even more aggressive growth. Long term, the goal of the ethanol industry is to be a major component of our gasoline supply in order to free the U.S. from its dependence on imported oil from several volatile overseas markets.