Ethanol Stations

We need more ethanol stations nationwide. Please read the article below. It is absolutely incredible that there is only 3 ethanol stations in California. Absolutely amazing. We need more distribution.... yesterday. It only costs approximately $300 to convert your car to accept ethanol. The price of a nice dinner out with your family. Many energy conscious people would glad start using ethanol if they could.... if it were readily available. At one point Walmart was considering selling ethanol at its stores nationwide. I hope they are continuing to pursue this... especially since they also have garages and could convert existing gasoline engines for its customers. .... target, costco, sears and others should also consider this as a way of serving their customers. We need more distribution... so whether its traditional gas stations ... or less traditional locations, we need it yesterday. USA Today 2/27/08 Ethanol stations remain few and far between By Chris Woodyard, USA TODAY LOS ANGELES — The ethanol industry has a problem, but you wouldn't have known it Tuesday from the line of big, thirsty vehicles snaking down the street from a single service station. Most states still have few places that sell the industry's highly touted E85 fuel (85% ethanol, 15% gasoline) even though there are an estimated 6.8 million cars and trucks on the road capable of burning the mixture. Here in the motoring mecca of Los Angeles, there's exactly one E85 station to serve consumers. It is one of just three open to the public in all of California. Thanks to a promotion subsidized by General Motors (GM), drivers lined up their SUVs, pickups and minivans for a blessed two hours of E85 priced at 85.9 cents a gallon — a far cry from the $2.999 a gallon that Conserv Fuel in the tony Brentwood section of the city usually charges. "I've been waiting to get a station out here," said Keira Lowery, 28, of Los Angeles as she filled up her Dodge Caravan minivan. Some waited more than half an hour. Promotions like this one have been staged around the country to raise awareness of E85, plugged as a home-grown, environmentally sound fuel. But even officials of GM, which makes the most flex-fuel vehicles that can burn E85, say they are frustrated by the slow rollout of pumps around the country. "We're trying to bring attention to the fact we need more stations," said Clay Okabayashi, a GM executive who was on hand at the event. The Corn Belt has most of the E85 pumps. Of the 1,490 U.S. stations with E85, 89 are in Iowa, 169 in Illinois and 342 in Minnesota, according to the tally kept by the National Ethanol Vehicle Coalition. But there are just four stations in Utah and one each in Montana, Massachusetts and Delaware. The slow growth of the E85 stations contrasts with this season's huge corn plantings and the continued opening of ethanol plants, many near the corn. While more pumps are located near ethanol plants, red tape is also a problem. In California, the coalition blames California air-quality officials for holding up installation of E85 pumps in a dispute about permits for their vapor recovery systems. "The problem is distribution and overcoming some laws and regulatory hurdles," says Phil Lampert, the coalition's executive director. Vapor-recovery issues have been ironed out with the federal Environmental Protection Agency. Local air-pollution districts will soon be cleared to allow more E85 stations, says Dimitri Stanich of the California Air Resources Board. That could make customers happy. Jesse Lopez, 37, a freight manager in Los Angeles, says he'll consider filling up his pickup more often on E85. He says he's spending $80 a week on gasoline now. As for E85, "It depends on the price and how it burns" in the truck, he says. And Daniel Ochoa, 30, a store clerk from Los Angeles, says he bought his truck in hopes that he could fill it with E85, but he never before had the chance to try it. He says he knew the day would come.