Colorado Governor Bill Ritter, General Motors, and Colorado's E85 Coalition will add 40 new E85 ethanol fuel pumps at 22 service stations throughout the state by the end of 2007. There are currently only 13 E85 fuel pumps — pumps, not stations — in the entire state of Colorado. Corn state and ethanol booster Iowa, by contrast, now has 58 stations offering E85.
General Motors described the announcement as "part of a nationwide effort by GM to help grow the E85 ethanol fueling station infrastructure." Since May of 2005, GM has announced partnerships in 12 states to locate more than 200 E85 fuel pumps at stations around the U.S. GM has 16 E85-capable vehicles in its 2007 lineup and leads the industry with an annual production of 400,000-plus vehicles. GM is also rebranding bigtime in a greenward direction (as witness the Chevy Volt). Hence GM's role in this initiative.
In part, the public push for E85 stems from concerns that the ethanol market may be approaching a saturation point. "The time when ethanol will saturate the blend [E10] market is on the horizon, and the industry is looking forward to new market opportunities such as E85," Ron Miller, president of Aventine Renewable Energy LLC, told the Senate Agriculture Committee in January. But finding an E85 pump ain't easy. The National Ethanol Vehicle Coalition says about 1,000 locations out of 170,000 service stations nationwide sell E85. A federal tax credit of up to $30,000 has been enacted to help defray service stations' E85 conversion costs.
Underwriters Laboratories' 2006 decision to suspend its certification of E85 service-station dispensers until it has researched the impact of alcohol fuel on pump parts hasn't helped. The issue is that high concentrations of alcohol can corrode aluminum and damage rubber fittings and hoses; E85-compatible pumps must be manufactured or retrofitted with other materials instead. Many major retailers (Wal-Mart, for instance) are waiting for UL certification to resume before installing E85 pumps.
That isn't expected to happen before Q2 of 2008. Meanwhile, the debate over the net energy gain achieved using ethanol from different sources — corn versus sugar, for instance — rages on as the list of ethanol fuelstocks and refining technologies continues to grow.
[Sources: Denver Post, Gannett, National Ethanol Vehicle Coalition, General Motors]
