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Automakers Want More Ethanol Pumps

March 8, 2006

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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.

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