BEMIDJI, Minn. -- There are now more than 1,000 publicly and privately accessed E85 fueling locations throughout the United States, according to the National Ethanol Vehicle Coalition (NEVC).
But as the opportunities for E85 fueling proliferate, petroleum industry leaders are urging caution in terms of mandating use of the fuel, preferring instead allowing market forces and consumer preferences prevail.
A Cenex station in Bemidji, Minn., gained the distinction of being the 1,000th facility where the fuel can be purchased earlier [image-nocss] this month.
The number of E85 stations has grown from 100 in January 2003, 150 in January 2004, 285 in January 2005 and 600 in January 2006.
We are so pleased to achieve this milestone, said Phil Lampert, executive director of the NEVC. From a very humble beginning of a few stations in Minnesota, Illinois and Iowa, achieving this level of stations is significant. While 1,000 stations is only a drop in the so called 'fueling station bucket' (approximately 170,000 U.S. sites offer gasoline), recent progress has been incredible.
He added, It's appropriate that the E85 station number 1,000 is located in Minnesota, home of more E85 stations than any other state. The entire Minnesota E85 Team, led by the American Lung Association of Minnesota and the Minnesota Corn Growers Association, has again demonstrated their commitment to the expansion of the use of 85% ethanol as a form of alternative transportation fuel. There are currently more than 300 E85 outlets in the state of Minnesota.
The NEVC has been involved with the establishment of each of these 1,000 stations through the provision of technical, promotional or financial support. The NEVC doesn't open these stations, we merely provide the necessary support. This achievement would never have been accomplished without the help of all involved, added Lampert.
Currently there are 946 publicly accessed and 56 private fleet-accessed locations across the country, covering 39 states. Arkansas and Massachusetts just recently added their first E85 facility to each of their states.
But the president and CEO of the American Petroleum Institute (API), Red Cavaney, painted a less-optimistic and more cautious picture of the use of E85 at the Advancing Renewable Energy: An American Rural Renaissance conference in St. Louis on Wednesday. He addressed the attendees at the conference co-hosted by the U.S. Department of Energy and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
We are concerned that some ethanol proponents are focused exclusively on E-85 fuel. While the industry does not object to E85 in a free market, so long as it meets standardized technical specifications and is of reliable quality, a national emphasis on increasing ethanol volumes through E85 can prove unnecessarily expensive and risky, he said. If we are to encourage more long-term use of ethanol, we need to avoid surprising consumers with unanticipated problems.
Cavaney criticized E85, calling it costly and inefficient and urged federal and state policymakers against using mandates to promote its use. His warning comes as federal and state lawmakers have touted the biofuel as a way to boost rural America and to help wean the country off foreign oil.
We believe allowing market forces and consumer preferences to determine where and how ethanol is consumed is the most effective and least costly way to integrate ethanol into the nation's transportation fuels pool, he said.
We do not want to be a party to any overpromise and underperform' commitment, Cavaney said. All of us have to be realistic in our expectations and pronouncements about the relative merits of various alternative energy sources.
Click here to read Cavaney's full remarks.
NEVC chairman Curtis Donaldson said his group was flattered by Cavaney's comments. To have the president and CEO of [API] making such a big deal of such an infant industry is gratifying and unexpected. The members of [API], which made a combined $38 billion in profits last year, may wish to consider investing more of that money in renewable energy such as E85 rather than simply trying to poke more holes in pristine portions of the Gulf of Mexico or Artic National Wildlife Refuge.
Donaldson added that as reported by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) a total of 139 billion gallons of motor gasoline were consumed in the United States in 2005. For the first six months of 2006, U.S. consumption of petroleum has averaged 20,441,000 barrels per day or 858 million gallons per day. It's truly amazing for the API to be so concerned with an E85 industry that is expected to sell less than 100 million gallons during the entire year; however, it's clear that Big Petroleum see renewable fuels as competitors and that is unfortunate for their shareholders, the environment, and intimately the American people.
President Bush was the closing speaker at the conference. He said, We're too dependent on oil. Low gasoline prices may mask that concern. I welcome the low gasoline prices; however it's not going to dim my enthusiasm for making sure we diversify away from oil.
He added, For those of you who are in the ethanol business, you're on the leading edge of change. It's coming, and government can help. I'm excited about new technologies. But I think we've got to be realistic about the timing. And in order to become less dependent on foreign sources of oil, we've got to explore for oil and gas in our own hemisphere in environmentally friendly ways.
Click here to read the full text of the President's remarks.
Click here for more details on the Advancing Renewable Energy Conference.
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