The question of where your fuel is from gets trickier when you are looking for an answer beyond the local convenience store.
We’ve heard a lot in recent years about energy independence, Middle East oil and home-grown fuels. After all this debate I’m not sure if anyone has a real good sense of where the gas we put in our car’s fuel tank comes from.
Growth Energy, which was created by ethanol producers, recently called on Congress and the President to require country of origin labeling for fuel. Some called it a ploy by the ethanol industry, but a closer examination began to show me the merit of such information being available to customers.
I understand that there is no way to tell where each gallon pumped into your gas tank comes from, but more transparency on the sources different petroleum companies are using would certainly be informative. Even if they just posted monthly or at the very least annual reports on their crude oil sources I imagine it might impact which companies at least some Americans choose to frequent.
I buy E85, which contains 85 percent ethanol, whenever I can in part because I know it possibly came from corn grown right here in the state and was likely processed at one of the 40 ethanol plants here in Iowa. I would rather have my fuel be grown by Iowa farmers than pumped out of the ground in a foreign country.
But, when I can’t buy ethanol I would prefer that my money wasn’t unknowingly going to Venezuela or Iran, countries that have vast oil reserves but also have dictators that hate America.
The idea of labeling the origin of the product we buy is nothing new, just look at the tag on your t-shirt or the label of almost anything you buy. Even cars now report what percentage of parts are domestically produced and what parts come from overseas.
The consequences of our dependence on foreign oil are quite serious when you consider that the U.S. has spent as much as $500 billion a year for oil from other countries. The transfer of that much money out of our economy annual has a significant impact as we seek to recover from the recent downturn.
Iowa has seen the benefit of a growing renewable fuels industry more than any state as we account for 26 percent of U.S. ethanol production capacity. Burning that fuel right here in Iowa makes more sense to me than bringing in petroleum from overseas.
So, if you are interested in learning more about Growth Energy’s proposal you can go to www.labelmyfuel.com for more information
