National Ethanol Vehicle Coalition Newsletter

Two New E85 Stations Open in Arizona

-Source: Pima Association of Government, March 8, 2008 press release

C & T Oil added two new E85 stations in Tucson, making a total of five available in the area. C & T Oil, which opened Tucson’s third E85 station, has added two additional sites to serve the community. The two new E85 locations are at 2710 N. First Ave. and at 1701 N. Alvernon.

“It just made sense,” stated Tom Cooley, owner of C & T Oil. After running 2005 numbers for fuel sales at his Golf Links site of C&T Oil, E85 outsold premium and mid-grade unleaded gasoline. “It was proof that consumers want an environmentally better alternative, and I’m going to give them what they ask for,” he added.

“It’s good for our community to have options for fueling their flexible fueled vehicles, and it’s great that we are able to locate them strategically across the city to give access to everyone”, stated Colleen Crowninshield, Pima Association of Government’s Clean Cities manager. “Besides its superior performance characteristics, ethanol burns leaner than gasoline; it is a completely renewable, domestic, environmentally-friendly fuel that enhances the nation’s economy and energy security. Tucson leads the state in accessible E85 stations open for public use. There also is one station in Sierra Vista, Az.”

For a complete listing of E85 fueling stations, visit www.E85Refueling.com.

Missouri Showing You the Love Promotion a Success

MFA Oil Company offered E85 for 85 cents per gallon at all of their 33 E85 locations on February 14. The Showing You the Love promotion (which was held on Valentines Day) resulted in the sale of more than 26,000 gallons of the renewable fuel for the day.

“Wow, it is amazing what 12 hours worth of 85 cent E85 will do for sales!” said Tom May of MFA Oil.

Sales for the month of February reached almost 160,000 gallons of E85. “With the addition of E85 pumps in Sikeston and Union, Mo., in the near future, we anticipate our sales to reach 3 million by mid-summer,” added MFA Oil’s David Perkins.

MFA Oil President Jerry Taylor was honored by the Missouri Corn Growers Association (MCGA) during their annual meeting held the evening of the promotion at the Capitol Plaza Hotel in Jefferson City, Mo.

Taylor was chosen for his homegrown fuel initiatives, including his efforts with E85 and his integral role in working towards the successful passage of the Missouri Renewable Fuels Standard legislation.

“The Missouri Renewable Fuels Standard that we helped pass last year is the single most innovative legislation in recent history,” said Terry Hilgedick, MCGA retiring president and corn grower from Hartsburg, Mo.  “We are already seeing other commodity organizations model this landmark legislation.  I expect that trend to continue as other groups and states realize the value of biofuels in helping build a stronger economy, cleaner environment and reduced dependence on foreign oil.”

-Source: CleanFUEL USA, Feb. 16, 2007 press release

CleanFUEL USA Distribution and Management, LLC (CDFM) and Pumpelly Oil Company are working together to open the first E85 station in Louisiana. The E85 station will be located in Sulphur, La., at 1890 Swisco Road. This location affords close proximity to the I-10 corridor. Pumpelly Oil, partnering with CDFM, is also planning to add E85 to additional locations throughout their fueling network. The E85 station will be supported by several Louisiana ethanol plants scheduled to come online in the future. Pumpelly Oil and CDFM will also work to create a reliable distribution network for ethanol and other alternative fuels throughout the state of Louisiana and will supply other fueling stations and fleets expanding into fuels such as E10, E85, biodiesel and propane.

“We are excited to be bringing biofuels into the great state of Louisiana.  Our partnership with CleanFUEL will allow us to be a solution provider for anyone that wants to use ethanol, biodiesel or propane,” said Glenn Pumpelly, president of Pumpelly Oil.

-Source: GM, Feb. 27, 2007 press release

Many organizations have joined together to celebrate the opening of Meijer’s twentieth E85 ethanol fueling location in the state of Michigan. The event marks the completion of 20 new Meijer facility E85 pumps, following a joint commitment between GM, Meijer, CleanFUEL USA, NEVC and the State of Michigan.

Mitch Irwin, director of the Michigan Department of Agriculture, was on hand to celebrate today’s opening. "This partnership and others like it will fuel Michigan's future," said Irwin. "Strong public policy support and private industry expertise are key ingredients to establishing a thriving renewable energy market, but it is innovation and commitment that will position our state as a national leader."

As part of this collaboration, local GM dealers are helping to promote the new refueling stations when customers purchase FlexFuel vehicles and GM will continue to focus on increasing awareness of E85 ethanol as a renewable, alternative fuel able to meet the demands of today’s drivers. To drive awareness around E85 ethanol and encourage customers to consider using this cleaner-burning fuel, Meijer has been selling ethanol at all 20 locations for 10 cents less than the price of unleaded gas.

Meijer, a Michigan company with headquarters in Grand Rapids, Mi., strives to provide the freshest product to its customers. E85 ethanol is one of those fresh products, providing a cleaner-burning fuel alternative and a new way to think about dependency on petroleum.

“Meijer took a first, but large step toward creating real choices for its customers at the pump when we committed to opening 20 E85 ethanol stations across the state,” said Hank Meijer, co-chairman of Meijer, Inc. “Fulfillment of this commitment is the foundation of Meijer’s overall focus on environmental stewardship for the future.”

Michigan is also home to one of the largest concentrations of GM’s E85 flexible fuel vehicles in the country, with more than 140,000 in use. Meijer’s 20 E85 ethanol pumps will allow even more Michigan drivers to fill up with the alternative, renewable fuel.

“At GM, we believe that the biofuel with the greatest potential to displace petroleum-based fuels in the United States is ethanol and we have made a major commitment to vehicles that can run on E85 ethanol—with over two million of our FlexFuel vehicles on the road today,” said Elizabeth Lowery, GM vice president of environment and energy. “We’re pleased to join Meijer in celebrating its twentieth E85 ethanol pump in the state and we commend Meijer on joining our efforts to make E85 ethanol available to more Michigan motorists.”

Meijer and CleanFUEL USA, the E85 fuel provider, have been working together to identify and install new E85 fueling locations across the state over the past year.

"One of CleanFUEL USA’s primary missions is to make alternative fuels available as quickly and efficiently as possible to everyone,” said Russell C. Youngdahl, Jr., CEO and director of CleanFUEL USA. “We’re pleased to have come closer to accomplishing that mission in Michigan."

GM’s E85 partnership and marketing campaign are designed to encourage greater E85 use and showcase GM’s E85 FlexFuel vehicle leadership to U.S. consumers. E85 FlexFuel vehicles can run on any combination of gasoline and/or E85, a fuel blend of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline. E85 can contribute to energy independence because it diversifies the source of transportation fuels beyond petroleum and provides positive environmental benefits in the form of reduced greenhouse gas emissions.

Today, GM has over two million E85 FlexFuel vehicles on the road in all 50 states, and will produce more this year. For the 2007 model year, GM is offering 16 E85 ethanol-capable vehicle models, with an annual production of more than 400,000 vehicles. This is more than any other manufacturer.

New NEVC Staff

Two new staff members recently joined the NEVC. Tanya Rahall is now the coalition’s Washington legislative representative and Burl Haigwood serves as director of program development.

Tanya Rahall resides in Washington D.C., where she specializes in Congressional authorizations and appropriations funding. Before starting her public and government relations consulting practice, she co-founded and directed several non-profit organizations, a legislative council and a political action committee. She continues to serve on the executive boards of those organizations.

Before incorporating these affiliations, Rahall rose to the rank of director of government affairs of an international trade association where she was responsible for developing and implementing legislative policy and government initiatives. Prior to that, she served as special assistant to the U.S. House of Representatives Education and Labor Subcommittee on Select Education. Rahall serves on the steering committee of the re-election campaigns of several members of Congress and is active in fundraising and event planning for domestic organizations as well as foreign business interests. She has been an occasional guest of the White House, most significantly for meetings in the Oval office with business leaders, Presidential signings and a State dinner.

Burl Haigwood also resides in Washington D.C. He brings 30 years of publishing, information technology, business development, public policy and ethanol fuel market analysis experience to our team.  He served as a consultant to Clean Fuels Development Coalition from 1986-1999. Prior to his return to the ethanol industry, Haigwood served as the director of business development for one of the fastest-growing information technology firms in the Washington D.C., area and as a consulting manger for Oracle.  His primary responsibilities are focused on policy developments in Congress and related programs at federal agencies.  Mr. Haigwood will also help the NEVC develop and deploy new programs that will increase the NEVC membership base and educate consumers on the benefits of FlexFuel vehicles and E85.

To reach Tanya Rahall and Burl Haigwood, email trahall@e85fuel.com and bhaigwood@e85fuel.com, respectively. Welcome to the NEVC Team, Burl and Tanya!

Photo above left: (from left to right) Burl Haigwood, Tanya Rahall, and Greg Krissek (NEVC Chairman).

New Jersey Needing E85

Currently, the state of New Jersey does not offer E85 to the public. David Hunt, who resides in the state, is attempting to change this by starting a nonprofit group to promote installation of the product.

Hunt wrote a local paper:

Forty-one states have a program or at least one E85 pump in it. In the midwest — Minnesota, Illinois and Missouri —it’s HUGE. FlexFuel vehicles fill up on E85 which is usually less than 2 dollars a gallon. Just glancing at the prices on a web site a few moments ago, it’s about .50 cents less per gallon in many states (KS, MO, MN, IL and even in our backyard in PA).

New Jersey HAS NO STATE PROGRAM TO GET E85 IN THE STATE!!!!!!

A few days ago, New Jersey passed a “Global Warming Response Act” to reduce Greenhouse emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. E85 or biodiesel weren’t mentioned in any of the items. This is something we can plant the seed for now and get a return immediately. There are 110,414 vehicles in NJ that can use this fuel TODAY. All we need is a pump. There is a Federal program from the U.S. Department of Energy that states, “Section 1342 of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 provides a tax credit equal to 30 percent of the cost of alternative refueling property, up to $30,000 for business property.” This means that if a gas station owner converts one of his pumps to E85, he will get a $30,000 tax credit. No takers in NJ. WHY?

New York and Pennsylvania have state programs to install E85 in gas stations all around the state (NY State Thruway service areas and a line in PA from State College down through Harrisburg east to Philadelphia). You can go buy E85 now from them. We don’t even have anything on the drawing board in NJ.

When I called the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and asked what we are doing at a state level to get E85 in the state, they basically said nothing. In fact, the person I spoke to said, “well, we are more concerned about clean air than fuels…” I replied, “WHAT DO YOU THINK THIS IS ALL ABOUT!?!?!?”

The indifference at the state level bothers me. There seems to be more focus on “pie in the sky” ideas, such as hydrogen and cellulosic ethanol (from woodchips and sawgrass) than something we can do literally tomorrow.

What Hunt wishes to do is to:

1) Petition New Jersey’s locally-elected officials to create a state program to get E85 and biodiesel pumps out there. Letter-writing campaigns, door-to-door petitions, etc.

2) Establish a “Clean Cities” program for the North Jersey Metro area with federal funds.

3) Make the public aware of biofuels.

4) Petition or at least show fuel retailers they have a community of 110,414 customers who would purchase E85 from them on every tank when possible.

“I am HIGHLY motivated to get this going,” stated Hunt. “I have little money and right now it’s just me on this campaign. I need help. I need know-how on grassroots campaigning. I need help on knowing whose door to knock on. I need more people to canvas neighborhoods and shopping malls to hand out flyers and bumper stickers asking them to call and write their elected officials. If all 110,414 owners of FlexFuel vehicles stood up and did one hour worth of work every month to get this going, we might just see our first E85 pump in the state before the end of 2007.”

To learn more about this group, join Hunt’s Yahoo group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nje-85Fuel/.

Hunt adds, “we can all get together, discuss and plan our approach toward getting E85 in the state.”

The Bounty on the Bay themed 2007 Commodity Classic attendance reached near-record numbers. The Tampa, Florida conference was just 100 attendees shy of the 2004 Las Vegas registration of 4,016 individuals.

“This was one of the busiest exhibitions I’ve ever attended,” stated NEVC Executive Director Phil Lampert.

General Motors and Ford Motor co-sponsored booth space operated by NEVC staff. Vehicles on displayed included a 2007 E85 Chevrolet Avalanche and a 2007 Ford F-150. General Motors also assisted NEVC with a membership recruitment effort by providing new prospective members with free t-shirts.  NEVC Chairman Greg Krissek assisted NEVC staff in the busy exhibition hall.  

A more complete summary of the NEVC Commodity Classic efforts along with an interview of NEVC Chairman Greg Krissek (shown above), can be found at: http://domesticfuel.com/?p=1615.

BIG THANKS to GM and Ford for co-sponsoring the booth!

Photo credit: Zimmcomm.

In October of 2006, Underwriters Laboratory (UL) withdrew previous certifications of E85 dispensing equipment. UL apparently took that action as a result of some degree of concern that their previous testing protocol was either unsatisfactory or required updating. The NEVC, automakers, ethanol industry and other federal agencies are all cooperating with UL to advance an E85 certification process in a timely manner.

Meanwhile, UL has issued several statements concerning their ongoing E85 evaluation and testing program. During the past week, UL issued a report titled Survey of E85 Fuel Dispensing Operations in the U.S .  A copy of the report can be found on the NEVC website at http://www.e85fuel.com/memos/2007/UL_Report_Feb_07_e85us_survey.pdf. The report outlines the results of field surveys and observations conducted on a total of 45 different E85 fueling locations. These site visits were sometimes by UL staff only and, in other cases, UL staff was accompanied by local code enforcement officials.

In 96 percent of the samples, the E85 equipment observed was as good as or better than the gasoline dispensing equipment at the same facility. In only two cases were the gasoline systems “newer or appeared better” than the E85 equipment. Essentially, the UL field observations found nothing in the way of leakage, spillage, or contamination being caused by the sale of 85 percent ethanol. 

The recent report can only be characterized as “unremarkable” in that it does not identify problems with E85 equipment. However, at the same time, UL does not embrace the field survey as a definitive statement of the existing equipment to properly dispense E85. This report is simply a part of the ongoing efforts which we are hoping will be concluded absent further delay.

The NEVC has been advised that UL staff also recently visited a number of ethanol fueling locations in Brazil and, while nothing has yet been published regarding the results of that field survey, we have been advised that problems with the dispensing of E85 and high-level blends of ethanol were negligible. Furthermore, there is some indication that Brazilian equipment standards are not as robust as those which we have adopted in the United States.

United Wisconsin Grain Producers, LLC, (UWGP) was formed by a small group of local corn growers in August 2001. Their mission is to add value to locally-grown grains by providing a local outlet to process the corn grown in the area and, at the same time, increase the total demand for corn in the south central Wisconsin area. In this way they established a processing facility to allow local investors to invest in a growth industry.

The organization determined the ethanol industry was its preferred investment opportunity and thus began the ethanol project, which eventually found its home near Friesland, Wi. Twenty-seven million dollars of equity was raised from more than 800 member investors with the majority of them investing between $10,000 and $20,000 each. It is a community-owned company with more than 80 percent of its members residing in Wisconsin and many from the immediate area. Thirty percent of the owners are producers who sell corn to UWGP. Many also purchase the distiller grains we produce for livestock feed. Thirty-three million dollars of debt was secured and, in late October 2003, construction of the manufacturing facility began.

Production began in May 2005, with an operational and maintenance staff of twenty-six people and a management and administrative staff of eight. UWGP provided industry-specific training facilitated by our design engineer to ensure a skilled workforce before beginning operations. The facility achieved its nameplate production rate of 40 million gallons within the first month of operations and, by the end of 2005, was producing at an annual rate of 50 million gallons. In 2006, UWGP received a Department of Natural Resources construction permit for the first phase of a two-phase expansion project and is currently running at 55 million gallons annually. They project to be at 80 million gallons by fall 2008.

“We joined NEVC because we are interested in doing our part as a producer to promote building demand for ethanol,” said Suzanne Wendt of UWGP. “We also are interested in communication to the consuming public so that they better understand our product. We see E85 as a vehicle to lessen our dependence upon big oil and its distribution structure.”

The organization sees E85 as a consumer alternative to oil products. Regarding FlexFuel vehicles (FFVs), the company would like to thank American auto companies for building and promoting FFVs. UWGP encourages U.S. automakers to put even more emphasis on FFVs and they want to see import companies retool and build all FFVs. Wendt added, “This would do more than any other single thing to promote ethanol and to enhance its development as a strong industry.”

Below is a list of fueling facilities which have installed E85 since the issuance of our last NEVC newsletter dated February 13, 2007.

There are currently 1,158 E85 stations available across the United States. For a complete listing, go to www.e85refueling.com.