U.S. Ethanol Production, 2001-2010

Ethanol production has been rising rapidly over the last 10 years driven largely by government standards requiring the use of renewable fuels. The first Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS) was established in 2005 and required the use of 4 billion gallons of renewable fuels by 2006 and 7.5 billion gallons by 2012. In 2007, the Energy Independence and Security Act superseded and expanded the original RFS to require an annual use of 9 billion gallons of biofuels in 2008 and 36 billion gallons to be used annually by 2022. Because ethanol is the dominant biofuel in the U.S., there is a strong relationship between the RFS standards and ethanol production.