E85 in the United States

Main article: E85

E85 is an abbreviation for an ethanol fuel blend of up to 85% denatured ethanol fuel and gasoline or other hydrocarbon (HC) by volume.

Availability

The number of stations in the United States that sell E85 is constantly increasing, as station owners either add new E85 tanks or convert existing tanks and pumps. One database that encourages users to submit station locations and prices is called http://e85prices.com [2] and lists, as of January 2014, nearly 3,300 stations carrying the fuel in the United States.

All data January 2014 from the Department of Energy and E85refueling.com. Links go to each state's list of stations; see notes below for caveats. For each state the total number of facilities is given. Numbers in parentheses are the number of private facilities that are listed. Note: For updated locations, see http://e85prices.com [3] As of January 24, 2014, there are now 3,266 stations in the U.S. selling E85.

State	Stations	State	Stations	State	Stations	State	Stations
Alabama	21 (1)	Alaska	0	Arizona	42 (3)	Arkansas	40
California	83 (6)	Colorado	107 (11)	Connecticut	5 (1)	Delaware	1
District of Columbia	3 (1)	Florida	96 (5)	Georgia	63 (4)	Hawaii	0
Idaho	7(1)	Illinois	291 (7)	Indiana	206	Iowa	208 (6)
Kansas	67 (1)	Kentucky	56 (3)	Louisiana	12	Maine	0
Maryland	21 (4)	Massachusetts	8	Michigan	200 (2)	Minnesota	415 (5)
Mississippi	7 (1)	Missouri	138	Montana	3	Nebraska	88 (1)
Nevada	23	New Hampshire	0	New Jersey	3	New Mexico	12
New York	94 (3)	North Carolina	25 (4)	North Dakota	88	Ohio	119
Oklahoma	31 (2)	Oregon	15 (1)	Pennsylvania	40	Rhode Island	0
South Carolina	117 (1)	South Dakota	138 (1)	Tennessee	52	Texas	101
Utah	5	Vermont	1 (1)	Virginia	12	Washington	15 (2)
West Virginia	2	Wisconsin	173 (1)	Wyoming	13 (2)

NOTES:

• Not all stations are publicly accessible.
• Some facilities that are publicly accessible only accept fleet purchasing cards.
• Please check the links before you use this data.
• Data sourced from U.S. Department of Energy & NGO National Ethanol Vehicle Coalition and NGO USA Energy Independence Publications may differ
• Station count usually the greater of two numbers when sources differ.

Minnesota has the largest number of E85 fuel locations of any U.S. state with close to 350 stations, while Illinois has the second-greatest number of E85 pumps with about 160. Although Minnesota has the most E85 pumps they only represent a tiny fraction of the total fuel outlets. According to Oil Price Information Service (OPIS) there are approximately 140,000 publicly accessible retail gasoline stations in the United States. (All filling stations in Minnesota are however required to sell E10, a mixture of 10% ethanol and 90% gasoline.)

Constraints

Concerns about rising gasoline prices and energy dependence have led to a resurgence of interest in E85 fuel; for example, Nebraska mandated the use of E85 in state vehicles whenever possible in May 2005. Similarly, whereas selling any fuel containing more than 10% ethanol is still currently illegal in some states, even this is rapidly changing. For example, Florida proposed changing state law to permit the sale of alternative fuels such as E85 at an October 7, 2005 meeting, and held public hearings on October 24. The expected outcome of having held this hearing is the changing of Florida state law to permit the selling of alternative fuels such as E85 by the end of 2005 to the general public. (At that time, only county, state, and Federal fleet vehicles could purchase E85 in Florida, from only 3 pumps in the state.) Several other states have similar laws still on their books that prevent the sale of E85 to the general public. The expected general outcome, though, is the rapidly widening acceptance of E85 sales to the general public in all of the United States by the end of 2006.

Federal use

US Federal fleet flexible-fuel vehicles (FFVs) are required to operate on alternative fuels 100% of the time upon the signing of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 into law by President Bush on August 8, 2005. (See Section 701 for this requirement.) Formerly, such FFVs were required to be operated by the end of 2005 on alternative fuels only 51% of the time (i.e., the majority of the time) by Executive Order 13149. (See Executive Order 13149, dated April 21, 2000.) This means that the US Government's use of E85 is effectively doubled as of August 8, 2005 with the signing into law of the Energy Policy Act of 2005. This jump in consumption had the effect of limiting public availability of E85 coincident with shortages of gasoline due to impacts of hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico during the 2005 hurricane season. Although the price of corn had not changed greatly, the usage of E85 nonetheless jumped, thereby creating a shortage of E85, and causing E85 prices to rise coincident with gasoline prices during the 2005 Hurricane Season.

Price

As of 2005, E85 is frequently sold for up to 36% lower price per quantity than gasoline. Much of this discount can be attributed to various government subsidies, and, at least in the United States, the elimination of state taxes that typically apply to gasoline and can amount to 47 cents, or more, per gallon of fuel. The US federal tax exemption that keeps ethanol economically competitive with petroleum fuel products is due to expire in 2007, but this exemption may be extended through legislative action. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the price of E85 rose to nearly on par with the cost of 87 octane gasoline in many states in the United States, and was for a short time the only fuel available when gasoline was sold out, but within four weeks of Katrina, the price of E85 had fallen once more to a 20% to 35% lower cost than 87 octane gasoline.

Vehicles

Postal Service truck running on E85 fuel and advertising its use. This picture is from the mail trucks in St. Paul, Minnesota.

For the 2009 automobile year, General Motors will offer 23 different engine/model Flex Fuel vehicle combinations. Ford Motor company offers eight models, Chrysler will offer 11 models, and Toyota will offer just two. Daimler (Mercedes-Benz) has one model (C300) as well, and is probably the only one amongst the luxury car makers.

In US, Honda does not offer any E85 powered flexfuel vehicles in 2009.

GM has stated a commitment to dedicate 50% of its production to Flex-Fuel E85 capable vehicles by the 2012 model year. Also by 2012 all products of British luxury car-maker Bentley Motors will be Flex-Fuel using a patented fuel-system and an in-line fuel sensor.

As of 2008, there were an estimated 7 million Flex-Fuel capable vehicles on the road in the United States. A recent GM study found that roughly 70 percent of its flex-fuel vehicle owners did not know they could use E85, and fewer than 10 percent did so.

E85 and the 2006 Minnesota Governor's race

In the 2006 election for Minnesota Governor, the issue of E85 may have helped re-elect Republican Tim Pawlenty. In the final week of the campaign, DFL Lieutenant Governor candidate Judi Dutcher was stumping for her running mate Mike Hatch. A reporter asked Dutcher what Hatch's stance on E85 was and Dutcher appeared to be unfamiliar with E85. As Hatch tried to cover up Dutcher's gaffe, he became angry with reporters which many people think led to a lack of support and Pawlenty's re-election in an election year when Republicans did not fare well as a group.

See also

• E85
• Ethanol fuel in the United States
• Flexible-fuel vehicle (FFV)

References

• http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/americas/03/10/brazil.ethanol.example.ap/index.html

External links

• E85 refueling location finder