Rapid E85 growth in Minnesota
Minnesota, like many other states, is experiencing rapid increases in the number of gas stations selling E85. Sixty E85 fueling spots have opened this year, with another twenty coming in the next few weeks. By mid-August, there will be 270 places to get E85 in the state. This means that Minnesota "leads in per-capita use of the biofuels, ethanol and biodiesel, and is expanding its E85 fueling network at a tremendous pace. If trends continue, Minnesota motorists will purchase 15 million gallons or more in 2006 -- up from just 2.6 million gallons in E85 sales in 2004", according to the American Lung Association of Minnesota, a member of the Minnesota E85 Team. Part of the reason the state is so into ethanol is that it was selected in 1998 for E85 promotion through a public- private partnership organized by the US Department of Energy.[Source: American Lung Association of Minnesota]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Mike Mc Gill 2:24PM (7/27/2006)
Congrats to Minnesota. 270 stations in that state is roughly equal to one station every 295 square miles or a station for every 18,220 people.
California has one E85 station for every 155,973 square miles. That's the total land area of the state because there is only ONE station in the entire state offering E85 for sale to the public. That would mean one E85 station for every 33,871,648 people.
This despite California being the most populous state, the biggest car market in the country, and the fact that if California were its own country it would have the WORLD'S 6th largest economy (that's even bigger than CHINA). California also leads the country (and sometimes the world) in emissions standards.
Now why would Minnesota (the 14th largest state in terms of land area and 21st in population) have 270 E85 pumps and California (the 3rd largest state in terms of area and 1st most populist state) have ONE?
I think it's because the corn lobby (ADM, midwestern politicians, et.al.) surely has worked to get the taxpayers of Minnesota to subsidize their business. I'm willing to bet there are state subsidies in Minnesota for E85 producers and sellers, whereas in California: not so much.
E85 is a massive "greenwash" (look up that word in wikipedia if you don't know what it means).
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prattacus 3:54PM (7/27/2006)
McGill, McGill. Why don't you mention Minnesota's long tradition of strong, farmer owned Co-ops? One of the reasons Minnesota is so strong in the ethanol arena is because these well run (Scandanavian themed) co-ops could front the capital to invest in future technologies! Believe it, it happens! Their investment is paying off now.
E85 is the best solution for now!
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Mike Mc Gill 4:07PM (7/27/2006)
Read the latest link to the blog debunking the ethanol greenwash: http://alt-e.blogspot.com/2006/07/is-ethanol-e85-fuel-solution.html
I'll point out that yours and my tax dollars are paying $0.51 federal subsidy for EVERY GALLON of E85. Yet the auto manufacturers are reaping the false CAFE benefits and the corn lobby is happy to see the price of corn increase as the industry struggles to find enough ethanol to replace MTBE as well as add to E85.
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prattacus 5:25PM (7/28/2006)
McGill - ADM is people. GM is people. It's America. They're the people who live next door. "The business of America is business," said Calvin Coolidge.
We're not going to stop allowing profitable business people from making a profit on their wares just to "shift" to a new sort of profit-free fuel.
That's a little silly.
Subsidies? I'll start complaining when I see more farmers driving Ferraris. Farmers aren't rich. They were going out of business in droves 20 years ago. Do you remember?
And even if they were, I'll take a rich Minnesotan over a rich Iranian (or Texan for that matter) any day of the week.
Look, you vote for big oil and GW, and I'll vote for E85 as a stop-gap solution.
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