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For decades, the big oil companies and the farm lobby have been fighting about ethanol, with the farmers pushing to produce more of it and the refiners arguing it was a boondoggle that would do little to solve the country's energy problems.


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Right, an ethanol plant in South Dakota.
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So why are technicians for British Petroleum, the giant oil company, now working at an experimental ethanol plant in the old Louisiana oil town of Jennings, helping to make it more efficient?


The erstwhile enemies, it turns out, are gradually learning to get along, as refiners increasingly see a need to get involved in ethanol production, according to a report in Wednesday's New York Times. Ethanol, made chiefly from corn, now represents about 9 percent of the country's market for liquid fuels.


And the percentage is growing year after year because of federal mandates. With the nation's thirst for gasoline, and the ethanol that is blended into it, expected to revive when the economy does, the oil companies want to be in a position to take full advantage.


The interest expressed by big oil companies is coming in the nick of time for small companies that desperately need capital and cannot find it these days in the private markets.
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Tags: Alternative Fuels, Biofuels, Energy Companies, Ethanol, Oil, Big Oil, Biofuels, BP, British Petroleum, Ethanol, New York Times, Oil Companies, Shell

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Once Antagonistic, Big Oil Now Warms to Ethanol and Other Biofuel Companies was originally published by Green Car Advisor. Read the full story by clicking here.