E85 station coming to Pittsburgh this week, two more by year's end
I wrote Monday about how Pennsylvania is making a big push to get out of their coal history and moving into a greener energy future. Here are a few more details on how General Motors, VeraSun and Sheetz gas stations are working with the state will do this. VeraSun announced that its partnership with GM would provide VE85 (VeraSun's brand-name E85) to three Sheetz stations in the Pittsburgh area. The first shipments will arrive this week to one station, with the two other stores getting the fuel by the end of the year. There are 322 Sheetz gas stations in America. GM and VeraSun have partnerships with third-party retailers in three other states – South Dakota, Illinois, and Minnesota – to promote E85.
[Source: VeraSun Energy Corporation]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
1985 Gripen 3:13PM (7/11/2006)
I learned from a business trip last year to Brookings, SD that VeraSun has a partnership with BP to sell E85 through a station there. I'm sure that's just one of many, but I wanted to point out that one of the partnerships VeraSun appears to have is with British Petroleum.
I was quite impressed with the station as they had lots of educational materials on-hand regarding E85 and the station was very new and clean. The pumps even had video screens. I guess they want to ensure you only put E85 in your car if it can handle it!
SD is also strange in that "plus" unleaded fuel was less expensive than the regular unleaded when I visited due to the inclusion of ethanol in the "plus" fuel, which the state (a large corn producer) subsidizes. I just read though that though the "plus" unleaded fuel (with 10% ethanol) is now actually 5 cents a gallon more expensive due to the price increase of ethanol. It used to be 5 to 10 cents a gallon less expensive than regular unleaded.
So I guess South Dakotans pay the taxman for the corn (ethanol) subsidies and then pay again at the pump! Who wins? ADM, VeraSun, etc.
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1985 Gripen 3:20PM (7/11/2006)
Here is a link to my source above: http://www.keloland.com/NewsDetail2817.cfm?Id=0,48703
It's funny to me that the woman interviewed laments the "ridiculous" gas price of $2.85 a gallon. We are paying $3.28 per gallon average in L.A. right now.
Whenever an "investigation" is done into why our gas prices are so much higher in California (despite the fact that a large amount of the imported oil goes through our ports) the finding is that we use a special formulation to lower air pollution, so it costs more. I don't know why we can't just settle on a nationwide standard for gasoline.
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Joe 7:33AM (9/19/2006)
The whole Ethanol thing sounds too good to be true - and you mark my words: The big Oil Companies will NOT let it be sold for the long term in the USA, as it will quickly cut into their already outrageous profits. They know Ethanol is a cleaner, more economical solution for fuel in this country, but alas, the Oil Conglomerates have WAAAAY too many gazillions of dollars at stake to let someone come into the picture and steal a penny of their profits. They will come out with every Ethanol-caused accident, situation or problem from it (like Gasoline is so safe!! HA!) and they'll eventually scare the public so badly (as we're 99% sheep, don't forget!) and Ethanol will no longer be an option in America before it even gets started. You watch and remember you read it here first: Ethanol will NOT survive. Thanks again for NOTHING, Oil Companies. :(
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