Using ethanol instead of fossil fuels.
The use of ethanol as an alternative to fossil fuels could greatly reduce pollution. This fuel burns cleaner, is easily replenished, and comes right from American soil, making it less expensive for the consumer. U. S. consumers use more than 30 billion gallons of high performance, cleaner burning ethanol-blended gasoline each year. Ethanol increases oxygenate supplies, reducing the need for MTBE imports and helping to reduce consumer costs. Ethanol is a high-octane blending component used by many gasoline marketers -- helping to keep this important class of trade viable, and creating competition for the major oil companies. Since the petroleum refining industry is running at near capacity, the ethanol industry helps extend our petroleum supply. Thereby, ethanol is helping to moderate fuel costs to consumers by the partial excise tax exemption for ethanol and ETBE blends available to gasoline marketers.
A General Accounting Office (GAO) study has shown that reduced farm program costs, and increased income tax revenues, offset the cost of the incentive. The economic activity, attributable to the ethanol industry, will generate $3.5 billion in additional income tax revenue over the next five years -- $1 billion more than the cost of the exemption. The U. S. ethanol industry will create a net gain to the taxpayers of almost $4 billion over the next five years. Nearly $4 billion has also been invested in over 70 ethanol production facilities operating in 20 different states across the country. The ethanol industry is responsible for more than 40,000 direct and indirect jobs, creating more than $1.3 billion in increased household income annually, and more than $12.6 billion over the next five years. The ethanol industry directly, and indirectly, also adds more than $6 billion to the American economy each year. The demand for grain created by ethanol production increases net farm income more than $12 billion annually.