USDA looks for ways to boost ethanol blender pumps

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is exploring ways to encourage installation of blender pumps as a step toward greater U.S. biofuel use, said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. Pumps would allow motorists to buy fuel containing a higher portion of ethanol than the 10% now sold in most filling stations. Only a comparative handful of blender pumps are in use at the 170,000 U.S. filling stations. More blender pumps and manufacture of more “flex fuel” cars and trucks are two leading suggestions in a forthcoming USDA report on biofuel use. A draft obtained by Reuters said the biofuels industry is on track to meet a federal law requiring use of 36 billion gallons a year of renewable fuels from 2022. (June 22, 2010)