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Many Cars Take Ethanol, Only A Few Pumps Give It Out
ALBANY, NY (AP) - Steve Williams does what millions of American motorists
can’t:
Fill up on cheaper, ethanol-based fuel from a local gas station.
Advocates, including farmers and President Bush, have offered E85 - a blend
of 85 percent ethanol and gasoline - as an affordable way to help the nation
grow
itself toward energy independence with a cleaner-burning fuel. They would like
to see more people like Williams, who filled up his 2003 Ford Explorer with
E85 on a recent morning.
But there’s a big hitch for this fuel of the future. There are too few
pumps. While there are about 5 million “flexible fuel” vehicles
on U.S. roads that can handle E85, there are only 1,145 public stations that
offer
the fuel nationwide, according to the National Ethanol Vehicle Coalition.
The nation’s roughly 167,000 retail gas outlets have been slow to invest
the tens of thousands of dollars it takes to add E85 - especially when certification
for the dispensers is in limbo and the market is so new. Many drivers don’t
even know their recent-model flexible fuel cars can handle E85.
“
A lot of times a car is a person’s largest investment, so they’re
cautious. ‘I’m putting alcohol in there? What!? Are you kidding?’” said
Christian King, whose Mobil stations in Albany and 70 miles north in Warrensburg
are the only ones in New York offering E85 to the public.
E85 is cheaper than regular unleaded gasoline. King’s station near
the University at Albany recently retailed E85 for $2.599 a gallon versus $3.149
for regular unleaded. But since ethanol has less energy than gasoline, fuel
economy drops 10 percent to 15 percent when cars run on E85.
Michelle Kautz, deputy director of the ethanol coalition, said E85 needs
to be priced proportionately less than standard gasoline to provide the value
to drivers.
She said ethanol prices tend to be lower in the Midwest corn belt, but higher
on the coasts because of transportation costs. There are no pipelines to transport
ethanol, so the fuel has to be trucked or shipped by rail.
The number of gas stations in North Dakota selling E85 topped out at more
than 30 but has been falling, said Kim Christianson, energy programs manager
for
the state Division of Community Services.
“
I’d estimate it to be around 20 or 25 now,” Christianson said. “The
biggest issue is supply.”
New York officials tried to give E85 a boost through a series of incentives
last year under former Gov. George Pataki, who made ethanol a signature environmental
issue. New York waived the roughly 40 cents a gallon in state gasoline taxes,
offered to pay up to 50 percent of the installation costs for station owners
up to $50,000, and approved a law giving stations the legal right to sell alternative
fuels from outside distributors.
Despite all the effort, King in May became the first station owner in New
York to offer E85 to the general public. Ralph Bombardiere of the New York
State
Association of Service Stations and Repair Shops said his members have been
slow to sink
money into dispensers and tanks because of “unknowns” in the market.
Exxon Mobil Corp. allows E85 sales at branded stations as long as certain
conditions are met, such as making sure the E85 is clearly marked as a non-Exxon
Mobil
product, said company spokeswoman Prem Nair. She said the company wants to
make sure motorists
don’t accidentally fill up with a fuel their vehicle cannot handle.
“
This is a product that we cannot testify to because we don’t manufacture
or supply them,” said Nair, who was aware of about 20 branded Exxon Mobil
sites either selling E85 or planning to.
Complicating matters is that Underwriters Laboratories has been undergoing
a lengthy review since October to see if E85 dispensers are worthy of the UL
seal.
The widely respected safety and standards lab - the little, round “UL” mark
appears on everything from smoke detectors to cribs - was concerned that ethanol
could corrode fuel dispensers. Stations can still put the pumps in with local
approval. But a lack of certification - and the attending potential of liability
issues - has had a chilling effect.
Some larger retailers were close to adding a significant number of E85 fueling
stations, she said, but “once they heard of the UL decertification, they
stopped.”
John Drengenberg, manager of consumer affairs at UL, said E85 certification
is a priority. But he stressed that it’s not like approving a new toaster
since they have to create a new set of safety standards. “This is just
the way that safety standards are developed,” Drengenberg said.
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