This Memorial Day weekend many motorists may be wistfully remembering the days of $2 a gallon gasoline as prices at the pump may hit $4 average nationwide by the holiday.
The American Automobile Association (AAA) predicts that nearly 32 million drivers will hit the road for the long holiday weekend. However, the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) says there is some good news. Because ethanol is keeping gasoline prices about 15% lower than they otherwise might be, RFA says the gasoline price savings this weekend alone will amount to over $200 million – enough for 133 million cups of Starbucks coffee.
Meanwhile, as crude oil prices jumped over $4 Wednesday to settle at more than $133 a barrel, oil company executives faced tough questions from the Senate Judiciary Committee on why prices continue to climb.
The oil executives defended their profits and the price increases with statements such as, “The fundamental laws of supply and demand are at work,” made by John Hofmeister, chairman of Shell Oil.
They also brought up biofuels and restrictions on drilling for oil in the United States. Peter Robertson with Chevron Corporation said, “Congress has recently made some hard policy choices on renewables and energy efficiency. We hope you can also make the equally hard choices to open up more federal lands and allow us to responsibly produce more American oil and natural gas, which can supply us for decades to come.”
The Democratic National Convention in Denver will be fueled with ethanol made from beer waste, thanks to a donation from 
Molson Coors is donating all the ethanol fuel for the fleet of General Motors flex-fuel vehicles to be used for Convention transportation needs. Coors’ ethanol is made from waste beer generated at their brewery in Golden, Colo. 
The 
The U.S. House today has passed a measure seen as important because it extends renewable energy production and investment tax credits has cleared its latest hurdle. H.R. 6049, the Renewable Energy and Job Creation Act of 2008, got through the U.S. House by a 263-160 margin.
Biodiesel-powered vehicles were the dominating force during this year’s Challenge X… a four-year engineering competition with 17 university teams from across North America developing General Motors vehicles using alternative energies. 
The Mississippi State team designed a through-the-road parallel hybrid electric vehicle powered by a 1.9L GM direct injection turbo diesel engine fueled by bio diesel (B20). It achieved a 38 percent increase in fuel economy over the production vehicle on a modified urban test cycle.
The 2008 Indy Pace Car corvette wasn’t the only shiny new toy to check out at the giveaway this morning. The 
I caught up with Indiana Corn’s Mark Walters again, as well as ICMC’s Mike Shuter (pictured), the council’s President and a Frankton, IN farmer. We talked about the new mobile marketing unit, the truth about ethanol as they see it and how IN corn fits into the ethanol industry. You can listen to my interview with Mark and Mike here: [audio:http://www.zimmcomm.biz/epic/shuter-walters-indy.mp3]
The 
Taking the 2008 Corvette is fun… and a bit dangerous. Tom Severino will promise you that. Tom is the Vice President and Market Manager of Emmis Indianapolis radio, the parent company of Hank FM. I spoke with Tom about Hank FM’s joint effort with the 
Well winners, really. And no, they’re not the two cute girls to the right. They were so cute though that I had to use their picture. It was Darron Stewart and his two sons that had brought the magic touch from Carmel, IN to a certain red buzzer. The troupe won a 2-year lease to a 2008 Indy pace car corvette at this morning’s special giveaway. The giveaway was the final event in a month-long promotion to raise awareness of ethanol. 
There’s no question for the