Federal law requires that by 2022, the United States blend into our gasoline supply 36 billion gallons of bio-fuels - primarily ethanol. This is almost one-quarter of our nation's annual gasoline consumption today.

For Florida, a state rich in the materials necessary for production of next-generation biofuels and conveniently close to Latin America's leading producers of biofuels, it means nearly 800 million gallons of biofuels a year.

Gateway Florida will host a morning round-table on September 23, 2009 at 8:00AM at The Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables, FL, to explore the feasibility issues relative to the new mandate.

While there has been ample discussion over renewable fuels and myriad conferences and panels discussing the topic, it seems little attention has been paid to how states like Florida will source sufficient sustainably-produced ethanol to meet the targets.

Topics to be discussed are as follows:

• the status of next-generation bio-fuel technologies, their commercialization and cost to consumers
• Florida's local bio-mass capacity and its ability to supply the market with a portion of the mandated ethanol
• the logistics of transporting large volumes of ethanol from the U.S. corn-belt into Florida
• the opportunities and obstacles to sourcing overseas' ethanol for the Florida market using existing trade regimes such as the Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI)

We will draw on the expertise of local experts and researchers from academia and the private sector. The findings of the panel will be submitted to federal, state and local officials and private sector stakeholders responsible for implementing the blending mandates.