Alexis Madrigal‘s investigation into ethanol is complete and will start to be rolled out this week. If you are a news organization interested in running the content – FEEL FREE. Steal this content!!

Oakland Tribune, Contra Costa Times, or small local/environmental blogs. Please – TAKE THIS CONTENT! No catch, no games. At Spot.Us we believe “journalism is a process not a product.” The process of this investigation was paid for by members of the community. The best way we can thank them is by giving the content away to other news organizations so more people become informed. If you are interested in running this content – don’t hesitate to contact us.

We will be publishing the entire series in one giant blast here at Spot.Us at the end of the week. In the meantime: Gas2.org and Celsias.com have started publishing it as a five-part series. You can join them running the content in a series or publish it all on Friday with Spot.Us. Serve your readers and give them good quality content.

Part I: How to Take Some Oil Out of An Energy System — Fast

by Alexis Madrigal

“Don’t change horses in midstream.”
–aphorism based on 1864 Abraham Lincoln speech

What happens if, all of a sudden, you need to change the entire energy infrastructure on which California’s transportation system runs?

Most Californians probably haven’t noticed, but that’s exactly what a combination of Midwestern farmers, Big Oil companies, railroad operators, and fuel terminal owners have done over the last decade.

In switching out MTBE, a former component of California gasoline, in favor of ethanol, a behind-the-scenes change of huge proportions took place. The state and its industrial infrastructure companies managed to start putting a billion gallons of ethanol into our gas tanks a year, without anyone really noticing.

“Gasoline is just one component in what is legislated to be motor fuel. You can’t sell it without the ethanol,” says John Mahon, who runs renewable fuels for Kinder Morgan, a key player in California’s liquid fuels market. “Ethanol becomes a critical path.”

In 2000, California consumed about 60 million gallons of ethanol. That grew to 100 million gallons by 2002 and 600 million gallons by 2003, according to the California Energy Commission. In 2006, California consumed about 970 million gallons of ethanol. That’s a 1,500% increase in use of the biofuel in seven years.

….Want to read more?

Related posts:

1. Changing Locomotion in Midstream: California’s Ethanol Mandate
2. Changing Locomotion in Midstream Part III: How to Move A Billion Gallons of Fuel from Iowa to California
3. Changing Locomotion in Midstream – The Full Report
4. Progress on uncovering the "midstream" of biofuels
5. A Spot.Us Spawned Idea Gets Made Popular