The 2011 results, which show a $0.20 per gallon greater price
reduction than the $0.89 per gallon impact in 2010, were
released today by the Center for Agricultural and Rural
Development (CARD). The new analysis, an update to a 2009 peer-
reviewed paper published in Energy Policy by professors Dermot
Hayes and Xiaodong Du, also found gasoline prices have been
reduced by an average of $0.29 per gallon, or 17 percent, from
2000-2011 thanks to the growing use of ethanol. "Growth in US
ethanol production has added significantly to the volume of fuel
available in the US," Hayes said. "It is as if the U.S. oil
refining industry had found a way to extract 10 percent more
gasoline from a barrel of oil. This additional fuel supply has
alleviated periodic gasoline shortages that had been caused by
limited refinery capacity. It has also changed the relative
prices of gasoline and diesel and allowed the US to switch from
being a net importer of gasoline to a net exporter. As a result
of these changes, US gasoline prices a