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Written by: By Jonathan Eisenthal, special
correspondent, MN Corn Growers Association
The E85 pump that sits in the highly visible front corner
of the SuperAmerica station on St. Paul's Grand Avenue saw
a steady stream of cars, SUVs and pick-ups Friday. They
were there to fill their tank with E85, the fuel made of
85 percent corn-based ethanol and 15 percent petroleum
products. A news crew from NBC was there, too: with
steadily rising gas prices, the crew was shooting footage
for a feature on alternative fuels, and spent the morning
videotaping drivers lining up for a tank of E85,
promotionally priced on Friday at only 85 cents a gallon.
The American Lung Association of Minnesota (ALAMN), Ford
Motor Company, the Minnesota Corn Growers Association (MCGA)
and other national and local, private and government
organizations work together as the Minnesota E85 Team.
Much of Gerlach's work at ALAMN focuses on promoting E85
and other alternative, low-emission fuels because of their
positive effect on air quality. E85 dramatically reduces
the emission of ozone-forming pollutants and fine
particulates. It also reduces greenhouse gases -
considered by many scientists to contribute to global
warming -- compared to regular unleaded gasoline,
according to studies conducted by the Argonne National
Laboratory in Illinois. But economics still play a
dominant role in the success of E85.
"We want to see what the market does here," said Dave
Blatnik, manager of state governmental affairs in
Minnesota and Wisconsin for Marathon Ashland Petroleum,
which owns more than 1,700 SuperAmerica filling stations
across the country. Grand Avenue is currently their only
E85 location, though Marathon Ashland Petroleum supplies
numerous other E85 retailers through a newly configured
rack blending system at its St. Paul Park Facility.
Depending on customer response, SuperAmerica says it will
consider opening other E85 locations in Minnesota that,
like the Grand Avenue store, would readily lend themselves
to a conversion of current infrastructure, and would have
the volume of customers who drive flex-fuel vehicles. The
Grand Avenue SA converted a kerosene tank for use with
E85.
Even without the promotion, SuperAmerica is currently
pricing E85 at 24 cents per gallon less than regular
unleaded gasoline. E85's higher octane and alcohol content
supplies lots of power, but gets slightly lower fuel
economy than conventional engines running on unleaded
gasoline. Still, with the price differential E85 drivers
come out even or ahead of drivers using gasoline.
"We understand the American Lung Association and the E85
Team has done a great job here in Minnesota promoting E85,
and we are looking to get into the E85 market as it
continues to grow," said Marathon Ashland's Blatnik.
Blatnik confirmed the possibility that SuperAmerica could
install an E85 pump sometime next year as part of
remodeling work at its Post Road location next to the
Hubert H. Humphrey Terminal at the Minneapolis -St. Paul
Airport.
Various organizations turned out in support of E85,
including the fleet manager and communications director of
Minnesota State Government's travel management division.
All 1135 of the state's vehicles are flexible fuel
vehicles, and wherever it is reasonable, state employees
are directed to fill up with E85. The state has used E85
since the early 1990s and considers its performance equal
to gasoline-powered vehicles. State agencies use numerous
Ford Taurus vehicles, as well as Daimler-Chrysler
minivans. The state travel division just purchased its
first four GM Silverado work trucks, for the use of the
State Board of Animal Health. Many metro-area state agency
vehicles run exclusively on E85, which is dispensed from a
2,000-gallon bulk tank in St. Paul. In greater Minnesota,
state employees buy E85 at any of the more than 90 fueling
stations at which it is now sold.
"We're big fans of E85," said Tim Morse, director of
Minnesota's Travel Management Division. "It's domestic,
it's renewable and it's cleaner than gas. We run our E85
vehicles on the same maintenance schedule as our
gasoline-powered vehicles and we have experienced
absolutely no negatives in using E85."
Travel management division communications director Bob
Lillevold added, "The performance of E85 is seamless with
the performance on gasoline - the drivers cannot tell the
difference. We have many Taurus vehicles that we run on
E85 only and they go for more than 100,000 miles with no
problems whatsoever." |
