Industry and Commerce Minister Francisco Javier Garcia has announced that investors from the United States were looking into the leasing or purchase of some of the country’s old sugar mills. According to the minister, the investors are going to put the mills back into production at a level that has not been seen in 20 years. Hoy newspaper says that the new initiative is part of the government program to produce ethanol in large quantities for use as a fuel additive. Javier Garcia said that the government is looking at a possible formula that uses as much as 22% ethanol mixed with gasoline. According to the minister, such a program could restore all the country’s sugar mills to 1985 production levels. The main attraction for the investors, according to Garcia, is that the mills will be producing something that is more lucrative than sugar, namely ethanol. Garcia said that the Dominican Republic is likely to follow the Brazilian model of mixing as much as 26% ethanol with gasoline.