Corn Pipe: Will Falling Ethanol Prices Mean Savings at the Pump?

The Wall Street Journal
June 4, 2008, 11:25 am
Posted by Jeffrey Ball

The Journal’s Ana Campoy reports:
For all the bad rap ethanol’s been getting from politicians and environmentalists, it’s actually helped keep gas prices from going even higher in the past few months.

Refiners have been paying an arm and a leg for crude oil—the main raw material they use to make gasoline. By blending cheaper ethanol into the mix, they make oil-based gasoline go farther. In March, refiners blended 20% more ethanol than in the same month last year, and 7% more in February, according to the latest government data.

That’s not only giving refiners a break, but consumers too.

If ethanol were out of the picture, gas would be more expensive at the pump because refiners would pass on at least part of the higher costs to the consumers.

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