Complain about a product or service

Automakers Want More Ethanol Pumps

March 8, 2006

Ethanol • Soaring Egg Prices Blamed on Costs of Fuel, Feed, Chicks • Chicken Prices Headed Up, Tyson Warns • Ethanol Gives Consumers Half a Loaf, Bakers Say • Ethanol-Blended Fuel Blamed for Boaters' Problems • Sales of Ethanol-Burning Cars Up 10% • How Green Can Your Drive Get? • Ethanol Producers Say Rising Food Prices Not Their Fault • Ethanol Driving Up Meat Prices, Congress Told • MIT Gas Saver: Ethanol Turbocharger • Ford Flex-Fuel Claims Challenged • Tests Find Ethanol Cleaner But Not Cheaper • Ethanol Lobbying Disclosures Questioned • Ethanol Benefits Questioned • Chrysler to Step Up Flex Fuel Production • Automakers Want More Ethanol Pumps • Ethanol Increases Consumers' Fuel Bills • Ethanol A Waste, Study Concludes • Ethanol Bandwagon Rolls on in the U.S. Senate

The auto industry told Congress that major oil companies need to install many more service station pumps that are capable of providing gasoline made from ethanol if flexible-fuel vehicles on the road now and in the future are to help save energy.

Automakers have produced almost 6 million flexible-fuel vehicles that could help save more than 2.5 billion gallons of traditional gasoline by running of E85, a mixture of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline.

Susan Cischke, Ford Motor Co. vice president of environmental and safety engineering, told a Senate Energy Committee hearing that there are less than 600 E85 fueling stations out of over 170,000 retail gasoline stations nationwide.

"For ethanol to be a real player in the transportation sector and lessen America's dependence on foreign oil, we need a strong, long-term focus on policies that increase U.S. ethanol production and accelerate E85 infrastructure development," she told the committee.

Most service stations carrying E85 fuel are small or independently owned operations in the Midwest.

In the Midwest, some state officials have accused big oil companies of dragging their feet in providing motorists with fuel that is compatible with flex-fuel vehicles.

"We obviously need key partners like the oil industry to invest in developing and marketing renewable fuels, like E85," Cischke told lawmakers.

Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.), who chairs the energy panel, said the government should lean on oil companies to install more pumps.

A spokesperson for the American Petroleum Institute, the trade group for big oil companies, said it costs $200,000 to install an E85 pump and separate underground tank for the fuel.

That is a large investment for a product that does not have a guaranteed market, the spokesperson said.

Report Your Experience
If you've had a bad experience -- or a good one -- with a consumer product or service, we'd like to hear about it. All complaints are reviewed by class action attorneys and are considered for publication on our site. Knowledge is power! Help spread the word. File your consumer report now.

Share		Follow us on Twitter.

Back to the top |