For U.S. drivers, motoring has always been about freedom. Now some folks are saying pumps that offer drivers whatever blend of ethanol they like mixed into motor fuel will increase demand for the biofuel. 

“The future for the entire country is going to be blender pumps. And that will give the consumer the option to put the blend of ethanol they’d like into their car,” Jeff Broin, the CEO of private ethanol company POET said at the Reuters Global Agriculture and Biofuel Summit this week.

Broin, whose company is the top U.S. ethanol producer, said the so-called blender pumps offer drivers the choice of motor fuel mixed with either 10, 20, 30 or 85 percent ethanol. Currently there are a few blender pumps in his home state, South Dakota, as well as Minnesota.

But the great majority of U.S. drivers only have the option of filling up with E10, while some fuel stations, mainly in the Midwest and Texas, offer E85.

Unfortunately for bargain hunters, ethanol’s lower energy content compared to gasoline makes E85 blends more expensive than regular gasoline.  But other drivers may like to pay up because ethanol has higher levels of octane than gasoline.

More choices could boost U.S. demand for ethanol, an industry whose capacity has grown 45 percent this year, amid government mandates and incentives, he said.

Some blends may even be more economical. A study last month said E20 and E30 blends give drivers better fuel economy than either E10 or E85. 

And the pumps have powerful friends.  U.S. Presidential hopeful Democrat Barack Obama and several other Midwest lawmakers last year threw support behind more freedom of ethanol choice.  

While others say regulations would prevent the pumps from spreading nationwide, Broin  holds out hope, in part because the pumps could make him a tidy profit.  “It allows the ethanol plant to haul the ethanol directly to the station… rather than take it to the terminal and pay the extra freight on it… It is a bonus for station owner as well as the producers,” he said.

Of course, to burn anything higher than E10, you need to drive a “flex fuel” car, which auto makers are producing more of these days.

Would you buy more ethanol blended fuel if there were more choices?