Bush administration open to boosting ethanol targets: Bodman

St. Louis, Missouri (Platts)--12Oct2006

The Bush administration is open to raising mandatory ethanol consumption
targets set by Congress, as well as to new tax credits or other financial
incentives to get more ethanol-powered vehicles on American roads, Energy
Secretary Samuel Bodman said Thursday.

In an interview at a renewable energy conference the Energy Department is
hosting in St. Louis, Bodman said the administration would continue to look
for ways to expand the number of ethanol pumps across the country and the
number of flexible-fuel vehicles available, but in a "fashion that doesn't
require mandates."

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have proposed requiring oil
companies to install ethanol pumps and automakers to produce vehicles that can
run on ethanol. Bodman said the administration may support incentives to spur
automakers to make more flex-fuel cars, but he said the decision to do so
would be left to individual companies because it requires a "big commitment."

Bodman did not rule out administration support for increasing the
mandatory renewable fuels standard targets that Congress set in 2005 as a
means of boosting ethanol supplies. Ethanol production alone is expected to
meet the RFS' 7.5 billion gal renewable fuels requirement for 2012 years ahead
of schedule and advocates are pushing the administration and Congress to raise
the standard.

Bush is slated to address the conference this afternoon.

--Mike Schmidt, mike_schmidt@platts.com

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