Found this:
The Dallas-based chemicals company Celanese has developed the technology to produce ethanol by tearing apart and recombining hydrocarbons found in America’s plentiful supplies of natural gas and coal.
“The problem isn’t science. It’s Washington,” Forbes observes. “Thanks to the 2007 Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) law, gasoline refiners are mandated to blend so much plant-based or renewable ethanol into the gas supply that it prevents Celanese or any other fossil-fuel-based ethanols from even competing for the market.”
Now 13 congressmen led by Pete Olson, whose Houston-area district is home to Celanese’s largest plant, have introduced a bill allowing ethanol made from natural gas to substitute for some corn-based ethanol mandated by the RFS law.
“We would prefer not to have the RFS at all,” an Olson spokesperson told Forbes, “but this is a step in the right direction.”
Meanwhile Celanese is building a plant in Texas designed to produce less than 6 million gallons of ethanol a year. The company is also building a plant capable of producing 80 million gallons a year — in Nanjing, China
