DES MOINES, Iowa -- Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey has announced that Kum & Go of West Des Moines and Cobb Oil Co. of Brighton are the first two winners of Secretary's Ethanol & Biodiesel Marketing Awards.
The awards were created by the Iowa Department of Agriculture & Land Stewardship to recognize fuel marketers that have "gone above and beyond" in their efforts to sell renewable fuels.
"Distributors and retailers are the connection between the Iowa renewable fuels industry and the customer," Northey said. "Both Kum & Go and Cobb Oil Co. have gone to [image-nocss] great lengths to promote both ethanol and biodiesel, and these awards are an opportunity to recognize them for their efforts."
The awards were designed to recognize businesses that market the renewable fuels they have available through creative efforts including, but not limited to hosting special events highlighting their renewable fuels, development of creative signage, initiation of new advertisements or marketing efforts and dramatically increase pump availability.
The winners were recognized during the Petroleum Marketers & Convenience Stores of Iowa Annual Meeting in Des Moines on February 6.
Kyle Krause of Kum & Go is the winner of the 2008 Secretary's Ethanol Marketing Award. As president and CEO of Kum & Go, Kyle Krause has made his family-owned company a cutting-edge innovator in the delivery of alternative fuel choices, the Ag Department said. Kum & Go was one of the first convenient store chains in the nation to offer a 10% ethanol blend, according to the department, and since 1997, Kum & Go has offered E85.
Kum & Go's total reduction of fossil fuel dependency was more than 18 million gallons from ethanol in 2007. The company currently offers 25 E85 fueling sites nationwide, including 15 in Iowa, which is the most of any company, the department said. And those numbers continue to grow, with two new Kum & Go E85 locations scheduled to open in the next two weeks.
Besides offering ethanol and E85 at its stores, under Krause's leadership, Kum & Go has gone to great lengths to raise awareness of the benefits of renewable fuels. Last summer, it gave away three FlexFuel Chevy Impalas that can run on E-85, more than $20,000 in ethanol gasoline and $15,000 worth of stock in VeraSun Energy, one of the largest producers of ethanol in the United States.
Mark and Laurie Cobb of Cobb Oil are the winners of the 2008 Secretary's Biodiesel Marketing Award. Cobb Oil currently offers biodiesel blends at four of its retail outlets and, as a result, has sold several million gallons of bio-blended diesel in the past 18 months. Also, by competitively pricing the bulk biodiesel, it has effectively encouraged its use by their farm customers.
Mark Cobb is also currently the board vice chairperson of Iowa Renewable Energy, a 30-million-gallon-per-year biodiesel plan in Washington, Iowa. In addition, he is serving as the company representative on the Iowa Biodiesel Board.
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