At 12.49 percent, Minnesota's ethanol consumption ratio was the highest in the nation for the fourth consecutive year (MN Biofuels began tracking the EIA’s data on ethanol consumption ratio in 2014).

Iowa had the second highest ratio with ethanol comprising 11.49 percent of all fuel consumed in the state in 2017. 

Nationwide, ethanol consumption remained above the oil industry’s fictional “10 percent blend wall” with a 10.13 percent share of the fuel consumed in 2017, up from 10.02 percent in 2016.

According to the EIA, ethanol consumption was above 10 percent of all fuel consumed in 34 states with Maine, New York and Virginia the latest states to breach the blend wall in 2017. 

Of those 34 states, there were 23 states that had ethanol comprising at least 10.4 percent of fuel consumed in 2017.

Back in Minnesota, the EIA’s data shows 320.88 million gallons of ethanol was consumed in Minnesota in 2017 compared to 319.15 million gallons in 2016 as overall transportation fuel usage grew to 2.57 million gallons in 2017 from 2.56 billion gallons the previous year. 

The growth in ethanol consumption in Minnesota in 2017 also coincides with the increase in stations offering E15 that year as 196 stations began offering E15, bringing the total number of E15 stations in the state that year to 256.