Why are Biofuels Important?
Ethanol is an important piece of the renewable energy puzzle. People everywhere value mobility – the ability to move around quickly and easily so they do the things they want to do. People are also becoming increasingly concerned about the toll which their cars and trucks take on the environment, as well as on their health and well-being. Renewable fuels are part of the sustainable, domestic solution to today’s’ energy needs.

We do not view this situation as a tradeoff – mobility or a clean environment. We see that “sustainable mobility” is the path for the future, giving people choices about how they get around with lower environmental impact. Ethanol is a renewable resource with positive environmental benefits.

Renewable biofuels, like ethanol, reduce dependence on imported oil and reduce the U.S. trade deficit. The production and use of ethanol displaces crude oil needed to manufacture gasoline. This is a huge challenge. Around the world, about $1.5 trillion is spent every year on road fuels. The United States alone consumes about 145 billion gallons of gasoline each year. In 2007, the United States had a petroleum-based trade deficit of $293 billion, importing 4.9 billion barrels of oil and petroleum products. During the same time period, ethanol displaced roughly 225 million barrels of crude in 2007 (approximately 5% of all U.S. oil imports; $16.5 billion value). As of March 2008, ethanol is currently blended in more than 64% of the nation’s gasoline. It is estimated that without ethanol in the current fuel supply, that a gallon of gas would be $.50 higher (or approximately 10-15% higher) per gallon of gas.

In addition, options for environmentally responsible transport raise many other issues, including climate change, national energy security, rural development, cost effectiveness and food for a growing global population. The biofuels industry is on the cutting edge of technology, pursuing new processes and renewable energy sources to help us achieve environmentally greener options, energy independence and food security.

Biofuels, like ethanol, are a pivotal component of our Nation’s renewable fuels portfolio to create greater energy diversity and national energy security. However, there is no single, silver bullet answer to sustainable mobility. The keys for the United States are: (1) to create a well-established biofuels market which builds on our current reality, moving us in the right direction; and (2) to innovate over time to broaden the market and to further diminish the already minimal environmental impacts. Fortunately, we do have a base on which to build and innovate. Ethanol made from US corn is the largest volume biofuel available today. It has been used in blends with gasoline for more than 20 years. And modern corn ethanol plants are energy efficient, producing a fuel which helps reduce greenhouse gases. Ethanol made from corn, however, cannot be a single answer to climate change and America’s addiction to imported oil. But it is definitely an essential part of the biofuels path forward. It is only a first step in the renewable biofuels evolution, and it is dynamically evolving and providing significant benefit to the environment.

Cilion, backed by some of world’s most progressive investors, has the resources to be part of the solution to the challenges of sustainable mobility, starting with corn ethanol and progressing further. For example, in Keyes, California, we are building one of world’s most energy efficient ethanol plants, creating 2.6 times more energy in our products than it takes to produce, as verified by U.C. Berkley’s Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory-Energy and Resource Group.