Secretary of Energy Samuel W. Bodman and Secretary of
Agriculture Edward T. Schafer sent a letter on June 11, 2008 to
Senator Jeff Bingaman addressing a number of questions related
to biofuels, food, and gasoline and diesel prices. Read the
letter. Without Biofuels, Gas Prices Would Increase $.20 to $.35
per Gallon. - The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) estimates that
gasoline prices would be between 20 cents to 35 cents per gallon
higher without ethanol1, a first-generation biofuel. - For a
typical household, that means saving about $150 to $300 per
year. - For the U.S. overall, this saves gas expenditures of $28
billion to $49 billion based on annual gasoline consumption of
roughly 140 billion gallons. - Ethanol use has exceeded the
requirements of the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), established
in the Energy Policy Act of 2005, demonstrating that refiners
and gasoline marketers have an economic advantage to use more
ethanol than is required by law. Biofuels are Reducing America's
Dependence on Oil. - Withou