The further blow out in world oil prices is yet another indicator that an Australian ethanol industry is an absolute must, Queensland Nationals Senator Barnaby Joyce has stated today.

“Current fuel prices are simply unsustainable in the long term for families and small business,” Senator Joyce said.

Ethanol production in the USA is reaching 15 billion litres a year with Brazil racing to the forefront of Ethanol Technology.

The world is dealing with the fact that fuel prices are going through the roof by utilising ethanol as a bio-renewable alternative. Australia, however, is struggling to reach its long term production target of 350 million litres year which is less than 1% of total fuel usage.

The Nationals, in Queensland, have long championed the mandating of ethanol as a mechanism for securing the right of Queenslanders to affordable fuel.

“The wiser heads have stated how naive we were; that the increase in fuel prices was just a glitch and that oil would return to $30/barrel. A bevy of economists agreed furiously. I said I believed the brave few economists who forecast oil prices of $100/barrel in the near future and that $30/barrel would never be seen again.

Well, I am backing myself in but am not interested in winning the bet. I am terribly frustrated that, as a nation, we are letting ourselves down by allowing the oil companies set an agenda in which they are making a great profit at our expense,” he said