Ethanol — California-Grown Ways to Burn Cleaner Gasoline

Ethanol is a renewable fuel produced from plant sugars or starches. It is widely used in California and elsewhere as an additive to gasoline that reduces greenhouse gas emissions from cars and other vehicles. Currently 12% of automotive fuel sold in the U.S. contains some ethanol.

California is the leading consumer of ethanol — using over 900 million gallons of the 2 billion gallons produced annually. However, most U.S. ethanol is produced from corn grown in the Midwest. Currently 7% of the U.S. corn crop is being grown for fuel and the nation's demand is for ethanol is growing rapidly. That gives California a powerful incentive to produce ethanol from crops that can be grown locally, rather than buying ethanol that must be transported thousands of miles.

Sustainable Conservation is working in partnership with agriculture and technology experts to determine how California can grow crops in a sustainable manner to produce ethanol. This could boost the state's economy by launching a new, agriculture-based energy industry in the state, while reducing dependence on imported oil.