The budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae remains a central position among biofuel-producing organisms. However, the gene expression regulatory networks behind the ethanol fermentation is still not fully understood. Using a static fermentation model, we have examined the ethanol yields on biomass of deletion mutants for all yeast nonessential genes encoding transcription factors and their related proteins in the yeast genome. A total of 20 (about 10%) transcription factors are identified to be regulators of ethanol production during fermentation. These transcription factors are mainly involved in cell cycling, chromatin remodeling, transcription, stress response, protein synthesis and lipid synthesis. Our data provides a basis for further understanding mechanisms regulating ethanol production in budding yeast.