E85 ethanol becomes publicly available in D.C.

Source: Energy Digital

Date :7/2/2007 9:06:21 AM

General Motors and VeraSun Energy recently announced the opening of the first retail pump of VE85, VeraSun’s branded E85 ethanol, within Washington, D.C. limits.

Located at the Georgetown Chevron, Washington’s first retail E85 ethanol pump will be followed by the opening of additional refueling sites in the coming months. A second VE85 fueling site is also available to the public at the Navy Exchange station near the Pentagon in Arlington, VA.

Also joining GM and VeraSun Energy’s efforts to promote the availability and use of E85 ethanol, Enterprise Rent-A-Car announced that it is designating its premier rental location in Washington D.C. as an official “E85/FlexFuel branch.” The new fueling locations are a part of a larger, national effort among the companies to boost the use and awareness of ethanol-based E85 fuel in the United States as just one way toward displacing petroleum and increasing energy security.

“GM wants to be a part of the solution to reduce this nation’s dependence on petroleum,” says Elizabeth Lowery, GM vice president of environment, energy and safety policy. “At GM, we believe that biofuels like E85 give us the greatest near-term potential to actually reduce gasoline consumption and vehicle emissions. That’s why GM is committed to building vehicles that can run on E85 ethanol with over two million of our flex fuel vehicles on the road today and plans to expand production going forward.”

VeraSun and GM have been working in partnership since 2005, having successfully worked with retailers in Sioux Falls, S.D., Chicago, Minneapolis-St. Paul and Pittsburgh to increase the availability of both flexible fuel vehicles and VE85. Today, VE85 is available at more than 90 stations in nine states and D.C.

“These flex fuel vehicles are on the road today and it’s critical that there are more E85 pumps to fuel them,” says Don Endres, VeraSun’s chairman and CEO. “We are excited to continue to expand our ongoing partnership with General Motors to increase the availability of E85 and to promote the many benefits of using this domestically-produced, renewable fuel.”

Enterprise Rent-A-Car’s E85/FlexFuel branch located in Washington, D.C. will include 50 GM E85 ethanol-capable vehicles stocked with materials about the Georgetown Chevron fueling station location and the benefits of E85 ethanol. “As owner of the world’s largest fleet of vehicles, we want to send a loud and clear message that, as alternative technologies like flex fuel become commercially available we will embrace them,” says Matthew G. Darrah, senior vice president, North American Operations, for Enterprise Rent-A-Car.