Bush’s Energy Obstacle: Ethanol

WASHINGTON, D.C. –

For nearly a month now, President Bush has been touting his new energy proposals, calling for a reduction in dependence on foreign oil, an expansion of domestic drilling for oil and natural gas, and a doubling of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. All of which would likely mean bigger profits for American oil companies.

Therefore it might seem odd that one of the biggest obstacles to the president’s energy initiatives could be the U.S. oil industry itself. But Bush’s objective is to reduce U.S. gasoline usage by 20% within the next decade, and the primary means of doing this would be to boost production of ethanol and other alternative fuels by 2017 to 35 billion gallons per year–nearly five times the current goal for 2012. On Thursday, the president will travel to North Carolina to participate in a forum on ethanol, where he is almost certain to argue his case for the need for more renewable fuels.

Ethanol consumption cuts into gasoline consumption, and if production doesn