77.6 percent of fuel sold in Iowa in July was ethanol-blend

Iowa gas pumps dispensed a record amount of ethanol in the month of July. Governor Tom Vilsack says 77.6 percent of the motor fuel sold in Iowa last month was an ethanol-blend. That tops the previous record of 76.1 percent in May. A total of 107 million gallons of ethanol-blended fuel was sold in Iowa in July. With the president signing the energy bill into law today (Monday) with its call for even broader use of ethanol, Vilsack says Iowa’s ethanol industry is poised to make even greater gains. “As I travel around the state, some people don’t yet recognize that (Iowa is) the number one ethanol-producing state in the country,” Vilsack says. According to Vilsack, the value of corn has grown by up to 10 cents per bushel because of the advent of ethanol fuel. Iowa is the nation’s number one producer of ethanol. Vilsack says there’s been a great deal of interest in ethanol plants in Iowa, partly because the industry believed Bush would sign an energy bill that included inducements for the corn-based fuel.