JEFFERSON CITY, MO – As Memorial Day kicks off the summer travel season, many Americans may be choosing to stay closer to home rather than the pain of skyrocketing fuel prices at the pump. But as bad as fuel prices may be, they could be much worse if not for domestically produced, renewable biofuels such as biodiesel adding to the nation’s fuel supply. In fact, Merrill Lynch commodity strategist Francisco Blanch says that oil and gasoline prices would be about 15 percent higher now if biofuel producers were not increasing their output.
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, some of the major factors contributing to the rising cost of regular petroleum diesel fuel include restricted supplies of crude oil, tight refining capacity and increasing global demand. National Biodiesel Board CEO Joe Jobe says that production of biodiesel is helping to offset some of those factors.
