| 1826 |
- Samuel Morey developed an engine that ran on ethanol and turpentine.
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| 1860 |
- German engine inventor Nicholas
Otto used ethanol as the fuel in one of his engines. Otto is best
known for his development in 1876 of a modern internal combustion engine (referred to as the
Otto Cycle).
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| 1862 |
- The Union Congress put a $2 per gallon excise tax on ethanol to help
pay for the Civil War. Before the Civil War, ethanol was a major illuminating
oil in the United States. After the tax was imposed, the cost of ethanol increased too
much to be used this way.
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| 1896 |
- Henry Ford built his first automobile, the quadricycle,
to run on pure ethanol.
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| 1906 |
- Over 50 years after imposing the tax on ethanol,
Congress removed it, making ethanol an alternative to gasoline as a motor
fuel.
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| 1908 |
- Henry Ford produced the Model T. As a flexible
fuel vehicle, it could run on ethanol, gasoline, or a combination of the
two.
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| 1917–18 |
- During World War I, the need for fuel drove up
ethanol demand to 50—60 million gallons per year.
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| 1920s |
- Gasoline became the motor fuel of choice. Standard
Oil began adding ethanol to gasoline to increase octane and to reduce engine
knocking.
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| 1930s |
- Fuel ethanol gained a market in the Midwest.
Over 2,000 gasoline stations in the Midwest sold gasohol, which was gasoline
blended with 6% to 12% ethanol.
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| 1941–45 |
- Ethanol production for fuel use increased, owing`
to a massive wartime increase in demand for fuel, but most of the increased
demand for ethanol was for non-fuel wartime uses.
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| 1945–78 |
- Once World War II ended, with reduced need for
war materials and with the low price of fuel, ethanol use as a fuel was
drastically reduced. From the late 1940s until the late 1970s, virtually
no commercial fuel ethanol was available anywhere in the United States.
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| 1974 |
- The first of many legislative actions to promote
ethanol as a fuel, the Solar Energy Research, Development, and Demonstration
Act of 1974 led to research and development of the conversion of cellulose and other
organic materials (including wastes) into useful energy or fuels.
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| 1975 |
- The United States begins to phase out lead in gasoline. Ethanol
becomes more attractive as a possible octane booster for gasoline. The Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) issued the initial regulations, requiring reduced
levels of lead in gasoline in early 1973. By 1986 no lead was allowed
in motor gasoline.
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| 1978 |
- The term gasohol was defined, for the first time, in
the Energy Tax Act of 1978. Gasohol was defined as a blend of gasoline with
at least 10 percent alcohol by volume, excluding alcohol made from petroleum,
natural gas, or coal. For this reason, all ethanol to be blended into gasoline
is produced from renewable biomass feedstocks. The Federal excise tax on
gasoline at the time was 4 cents per gallon. This law amounted to a 40-cents-per-gallon subsidy for every gallon of ethanol blended into gasoline.
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| 1979 |
- The marketing of commercial alcohol-blended fuels began by the Amoco Oil Company, followed by Ashland,
Chevron, Beacon, and Texaco.
- About $1 billion eventually went to biomass-related
projects from the Department of the Interior and Related Agencies Appropriation Act.
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| 1980–84 |
- The first U.S. survey of ethanol production was conducted. The survey
found fewer than 10 ethanol facilities existed, producing about
50 million gallons of ethanol per year. This was a major increase from
the late 1950s until the late 1970s, when virtually no fuel ethanol was
commercially available.
- Congress enacted a series of tax benefits to ethanol producers and blenders.
These benefits encouraged the growth of ethanol production.
- The Energy Security Act of 1980 offered insured loans for small ethanol
producers (less than 1 million gallons per year), up to $1 million in
loan guarantees for each project that could cover up to 90% of construction
costs on an ethanol plant; price guarantees for biomass energy projects;
and purchase agreements for biomass energy used by Federal agencies.
- Congress placed an import fee (tariff) on foreign-produced ethanol.
Previously, foreign producers, such as Brazil, were able to ship less
expensive ethanol into the United States.
- The Gasohol Competition Act of 1980 banned retaliation against ethanol
resellers.
- The Crude Windfall Tax Act of 1980 extended the ethanol—gasoline blend
tax credit.
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| 1983 |
- The Surface Transportation Assistance Act of 1982 (signed in early 1983) increased
the ethanol subsidy to 50 cents per gallon.
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| 1984 |
- The number of ethanol plants in the United States peaked at 163.
- The Tax Reform Act of 1984 increased the ethanol subsidy to 60 cents per gallon.
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| 1985 |
- Many ethanol producers went out of business, despite the subsidies.
- Only 74 of the 163 commercial ethanol plants (45%) remained operating
by the end of 1985, producing 595 million gallons of ethanol for the year.
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| 1988 |
- Ethanol was first used as an oxygenate in gasoline. Denver, Colorado,
mandated oxygenated fuels (i.e., fuels containing oxygen) for winter use
to control carbon monoxide emissions.
- Other oxygenates added to gasoline included MTBE (Methyl Tertiary Butyl
Ether, made from natural gas and petroleum) and ETBE (Ethyl Tertiary
Butyl Ether, from ethanol and petroleum).
- MTBE dominated the market for oxygenates.
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| 1990 |
- The Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990 decreased the ethanol subsidy to 54
cents per gallon of ethanol.
- Ethanol plants began switching from coal to natural gas for power generation
and adopting other cost-reducing technologies.
- An expanding market and the high cost of fructose corn syrup encouraged
expansion of wet mill plants that produce the syrup as a by-product of
the ethanol production process.
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| 1992 |
- The Energy Policy Act of 1992 provided for two additional gasoline
blends (7.7% and 5.7% ethanol).
The Act defined ethanol blends with at least 85% ethanol as alternative
transportation fuels. It also required specified car fleets to begin
purchasing alternative fuel vehicles, such as vehicles capable of operating
on E-85 (a blend of 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline). The Act also provided
tax deductions for purchasing (or converting) a vehicle capable of running on alternative fuel, such as E-85, and for installing equipment to dispense
alternative fuels.
- The Clean Air Act Amendments mandated the wintertime use of
oxygenated fuels in 39 major carbon monoxide nonattainment areas (areas
where EPA emissions standards for carbon mioxide had not been met) and
required year-round use of oxygenates in 9 severe ozone nonattainment
areas in 1995.
- MTBE was still the primary oxygenate used in the United States.
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| 1995 |
- The excise tax exemption and income tax credits were extended to ethanol
blenders that produced ETBE.
- The EPA began requiring the use of reformulated gasoline, year round,
in metropolitan areas with the most smog.
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| 1995–96 |
- With a poor corn crop and the doubling of corn
prices in the mid—1990s to $5 a bushel, some States passed subsidies to
help the ethanol industry.
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| 1997 |
- Major U.S. auto manufacturers began mass production
of flexible-fueled vehicle models capable of operating on E-85, gasoline,
or both. Despite their ability to use E-85, most of these vehicles used
gasoline as their only fuel because of the scarcity of E-85 stations.
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| 1998 |
- The ethanol subsidy was extended through 2007
with a gradual reduction from 54 cents per gallon
to 51 cents per gallon in 2005.
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| 1999 |
- Some States began to pass bans on MTBE use in
motor gasoline because traces of it were showing up in drinking water sources,
presumably from leaking gasoline storage tanks. Because ethanol and ETBE
are the main alternatives to MTBE as an oxygenate in gasoline, these bans
increased the need for ethanol as they went into effect.
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| 2000 |
- The EPA recommended that MTBE should be phased out
nationally.
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| 2001 |
- A 1998 law reduced the ethanol subsidy to 53
cents per gallon, starting January 1, 2001.
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| 2002 |
- U.S. automakers continued to produce large numbers of E-85-capable vehicles
to meet Federal regulations that required a certain percentage of fleet
vehicles capable of running on alternative fuels. Over 3 million
of these vehicles were in use.
- At the same time, several States were encouraging fueling stations to
sell E-85.
- With only 169 stations in the United States selling E-85, most E-85 capable vehicles
are still operating on gasoline instead of on E-85.
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| 2003 |
- A 1998 law reduced the ethanol subsidy to 52 cents per gallon, starting
January 1, 2003.
- As of October 2003, a total of 18 States had passed legislation that
would eventually ban MTBE.
- California began switching from MTBE to ethanol to make reformulated
gasoline, resulting in a significant increase in ethanol demand by mid-year,
even though the California MTBE ban did not officially go into effect until 2004.
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| 2005 |
- The Energy Policy Act of 2005 was responsible for regulations that ensured gasoline sold in the United States contained a minimum volume of renewable fuel, called the Renewable Fuels Standard. The regulations aimed to double, by 2012, the use of renewable fuel, mainly ethanol made from corn.
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| 2007 |
- The Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 expanded the Renewable Fuels Standard to require that 36 billion gallons of ethanol and other fuels be blended into gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel by 2022. In 2007, the United States consumed 6.8 billion gallons of ethanol and 0.5 billions gallons of biodiesel.
- An Argonne National Laboratory study compared data on water, electricity, and total energy usage from 2001 and 2006. During this period, America's ethanol industry achieved improvements in efficiency and resource use while it increased production nearly 300%.
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| 2008 |
- As of March 2008, U.S. ethanol production capacity was at 7.2 billion gallons, with an additional 6.2 billion gallons of capacity under construction.
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