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The ethanol industry that makes fuel for vehicles is on a roll and can expect huge production increases as officials hunt for alternatives to imported oil and for ways to slash greenhouse-gas emissions, speakers said Tuesday in Tucson.

Addressing an ethanol industry trade group meeting here, a top Bush administration official pitched new proposals to dramatically boost the use of alternative fuels in the next decade.

Stephen Johnson, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency chief, said a proposal would require the country to use 35 billion gallons a year of alternative fuels by 2017, compared with 6 million gallons today. Gasoline use would have to be cut by 20 percent in the same period.

A former Clinton administration official warned that the United States is in crisis because of its dependence on oil imported from countries with unstable, hostile governments.

"This is not about Republicans or Democrats. It's not about liberals or conservatives or people who live in the Midwest or Southeast or in or out of this great country," Mickey Kantor, a former U.S. trade representative, told the Tucson audience. He said he would give $50,000 in donations this year to the conference's sponsor, the Renewable Fuels Association. "This is about all of us, about our children or grandchildren."

But across the country, the ethanol boom has created controversies: whether it produces enough energy compared with what it takes to make it, how much it cuts air pollution and greenhouse gases, and its effect on consumers' corn prices.

Last year, the U.S. ethanol industry produced a record 4.9 billion gallons, opened 15 new "biorefineries" to produce more of the corn-based fuel, and began construction of 50 more, the head of the Renewable Fuels Association trade group told the gathering, which his group sponsored. It drew about 2,000 people to the JW Marriott Starr Pass Resort & Spa.

By the end of last year, ethanol-blended gasoline accounted for 46 percent of the nation's fuel supply, said Bob Dineen, the association's president.

In Tucson, three gas stations sell E85, a blend of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline, for use in vehicles designed to run on either E85 or gasoline. One gas station owner said he will add ethanol pumps to two more stations in March.

About 76,500 vehicles registered in Arizona in January 2006 were "flex-fuel vehicles" that run on ethanol and gasoline, the state Division of Motor Vehicles said. Typically, E85 pump prices are a few pennies a gallon less than regular gasoline, due to to a federal tax incentive that amounts to a 51-cent-per-gallon subsidy aimed at promoting renewable fuel supplies.

But a study by a University of California scientist found that it takes 29 percent more energy to produce ethanol than the amount of fuel produced. Several other studies, including one from the same school and another from the University of Minnesota, have rebutted that and found gains of 25 percent to 50 percent in energy supply due to ethanol.

Ethanol also is criticized because the corn used to produce it requires fertilizers and pesticides that can leach into groundwater, lakes and streams. And Consumer Reports magazine last year tested a Chevrolet Tahoe SUV that ran on ethanol and found its fuel economy was poor — only 10 miles per gallon.

The EPA's Johnson said Tuesday that federal proposals to boost ethanol and other renewable-fuel use will significantly reduce carbon monoxide, benzene and hydrocarbons emitted from cars, although polluting, ozone-forming compound emissions would increase slightly.

But the University of Minnesota study said producing ethanol from corn saves only 12 percent of the greenhouse gases produced by gasoline use.

Still, a Tucson official who promotes alternative-fuel use said she was optimistic about ethanol's future. "We are seeing more and more people decide that we cannot rely on gasoline forever," said Colleen Crowninshield, who heads the Clean Cities Program for the Pima Association of Governments.

Tom Cooley, owner of C&T Oil, introduced E85 at his station at 8601 E. Golf Links Road in 2004. Its sales now top those of diesel fuel, premium and midgrade gasoline. By March 1, he hopes to offer the blend at his stations at 1701 N. Alvernon Way and 2710 N. First Ave.

"I am pretty optimistic, or I wouldn't be doing it," he said.