U.S. Congress has voted to protect the domestic ethanol industry and extend the secondary tariff of 54 cents per gallon on imported ethanol. The American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE) praised the move saying that secondary tariff, which is now in place until January 1, 2009, will ensure continued growth and investment in the domestic ethanol industry. Ethanol currently attracts a 51 cent per gallon blender's credit no matter the country of origin.

Brazil is the world's largest ethanol exporter, so you'd think they would be upset by this decision. But just days later the Honorable Jeb Bush, Governor of the State of Florida; His Excellency Roberto Rodrigues, President of the Superior Council of Agribusiness of FIESP and Former Minister of Agriculture of Brazil; and His Excellency Luis Alberto Moreno, President of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) announced the formation of the Interamerican Ethanol Commission. Brazil produces approximately 4 billion gallons of ethanol annually and is Florida's top trading partner.

Bush, Rodrigues and Moreno will serve as co-chairs of the commission which has as its mission to promote the usage of ethanol in blended fuel throughout the Americas. Other objectives of the commission are promoting the integration of technical and scientific research efforts across the hemisphere related to the production and distribution of ethanol; determining investment needs in both agriculture and infrastructure to enable a hemispheric wide market for ethanol blended fuel; determining the economic and environmental implications of carbon credits produced by the project; encouraging the development of environmentally sound ethanol operations; and recommending a set of actions in order to create an international market for ethanol.

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[Source: Renewable Energy Access]

South Dakota is making it a little bit easier to see Mt. Rushmore or the Corn Palace in a green car. The state office of tourism is mailing out up to 3,000 $20 ethanol vouchers to drivers to spend when they fill up with some sort of ethanol-related fuel in South Dakota. As of today, there are 64 participating gas stations in the state, but more are promised.

Only licensed drivers from 10 states (Kansas, Illinois, Texas, Colorado, Missouri, Wisconsin, North Dakota, Iowa, Minnesota and Nebraska) are eligible for these ethanol vouchers, and when drivers sign up, they “agree to receive promotional information from the South Dakota Office of Tourism, the American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE) and the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council (EPIC) and their partners.” Why these ten states, I don’t know. The promotion runs until August 31st.

[Source: South Dakota Office of Tourism, Hat tip to reader Autoblog.com reader Mavkato]