General Motors to Partner With 10 States to Boost U.S. Infrastructure for Ethanol 85
By Scott Doggett October 15, 2008
General Motors Corp. announced today that it will partner with 10 states to increase the fueling infrastructure for gasoline-ethanol blended fuel.
The automaker will team with state officials, ethanol producers and retailers to find optimal locations for E85 fueling stations, promote use of the ethanol-gasoline blend and optimize supplies of the fuel.
The 10 states in the partnership are: Alabama, Florida, Idaho, Kansas, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, Tennessee and Wisconsin.
E85, which is 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline, is the most common form of flex fuel in the U.S. It can be found at 1,665 fuel stations nationwide and is currently unavailable in six states, according to the Energy Department. The lack of fueling infrastructure is one of the largest hurdles standing in the way of wide-scale flex-fuel use.
"The infrastructure for E85 needs to expand now if the nation is to be ready for the significant growth in ethanol coming from new cellulosic and biomass sources," Beth Lowery, GM's vice president of environment, energy and safety policy, said in a statement.
An estimated 7 million flex-fuel vehicles are on U.S. roads today, 1 million of which were produced in 2007. GM and other domestic automakers have committed to making at least half of their new fleet offerings flex-fuel capable by 2012.
The U.S. consumed 6.8 billion gallons of ethanol last year. That number will need to grow substantially to meet the national renewable fuel standard established in last year's energy law, which will require 36 billion gallons of biofuels to be used annually by 2022.
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