The US Environmental Protection Agency has just reported that they will approve of a drastic increase of ethanol levels in gasoline for model-year 2007 cars and newer. They will allow an increase in ethanol fuel blends from 10% to 15%. Auto-makers and experts have been criticizing this change in fuel blends because they believe that more testing can be done before this decision was made so early. Gina McCarthy, the EPA clean air director, assures everyone that they will did many tests before making this decision.
Overall in the Energy industry, technology has been a big part of the growth and development of this industry. From creating new drills for oil in the Gulf of Mexico to changing to nuclear energy across the world, the Energy Industry has grown substantially across the years.
Manufacturing in comparison to domestically to internationally, is very similar. Though the United States is a lot more advanced than Middle Eastern countries, China, UK, and other European countries are very advanced when it comes to manufacturing in the Energy Industry. An example of a poor manufacturing Energy country is Irag. Though they are on the rise and should be very advanced in the next 20 years, they still have problems with security, water shortages, and its infrastructure.
-Michael Sheinfeld
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703673604575550261503126190.html?mod=WSJ_Energy_leftHeadlines
The EPA approving this increase in the ethanol levels in gasoline could be very beneficial for the energy industry. As stated, the use of new technology has had a major imapct on the growth of the energy industry which has helped develop the use of alternative energy resources. Since the use of these resources has become more common in our country, the demand for oil has been significantly lower than it has been in the past. Replacing a higher percentage of gasoline with ethanol instead of the oil could help the industry save money because the production of the ethanol would be less expensive. It will also help further develop ethanol technology. The major downside that I'm seeing to this change would be the cost of corn for the general public. This is quite a significant increase in the percentage of ethanol used so a spike in the price of corn is almost inevitable.
ReplyDelete-Ashley Luddy