U.S. may boost ethanol content of gas; S.F. gleans biofuel from sewers

American motorists soon may be burning a higher percentage of ethanol in their gasoline as the Obama Administration strives to increase demand for biofuels and rescue producers from financial collapse. Meanwhile, biofuels may come from increasingly diverse sources, including weeds, agricultural waste, and the sewers of San Francisco.

New Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced this weekend he is working with Lisa Jackson, his counterpart at the Environmental Protection Agency, to increase the percentage of ethanol in gasoline. In November the EPA mandated that gasoline contain 10.2 percent ethanol in 2009. Vilsack hopes that increasing that percentage will revive demand for ethanol, which collapsed along with petroleum prices last year, he told Bloomberg News reporter Tina Seeley. About 21 percent of the nation’s ethanol-producing capacity is idle, Bloomberg reported, and the nation’s second-largest producer, VeraSun Energy, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in October.

Examiner