I received this letter yesterday from a self-proclaimed “ethanol crusader” in Florida. It was pretty long, but here is an edited version with her key points:
Hi Cindy, keep up the good work.
I’ve recently join the Movement “Florida Needs Ethanol”.com.
Today (Memorial Day) I drove around to distribute fliers to several gas stations. Mostly the small ones like Race Track, Red Rabbit, Valero, Marathon, 7/11 Citgo and some BPs.
It was amazing and somewhat disconcerting how little they know about Ethanol. Out of the dozens station attendants I’ve talked to, only one had heard of Ethanol.
The only way I got them interested was telling them that the government was offering tax incentives to fuel retailers. I told them to visit the website to find out about it, but I can’t find the link for retailers info. Could you please make that link more obvious?
Also, I was very disappointed by the great opportunity lost by Ethanol producers, GM and Ford by not advertising their products during the Super Bowl of racing (the Indy 500).
Why didn’t they run it during this classic race making history about the three women and all the cars running on Ethanol?
Don Endres’ VeraSun has a video commercial on their website that bring tears to one’s eyes with an once of patriotism. If the Ethanol Big Guys don’t care that much to promote their product on TV during IRL races, why should I spend my gasoline money and my time to promote it?
This thing about the EPA not approving a retro-fit kit to transition to E-85 is VERY disheartening. Unfortunately, most of us that want to do the right thing cannot afford to buy a new car, let alone a hybrid or FFV.
In parting, I’d like to ask you to please forward my email to anybody and everybody involved in bringing Ethanol to the public, especially here in Florida. My friends and co-workers are eager to help save our beautiful planet.
Best Regards,
Lynda Gagnon
Ethanol Crusader
First of all, Lynda – thanks for the grassroots work you are doing to help bring ethanol to the Sunshine State. You are doing more with your campaign than you might believe. If retailers think people will buy a new product, they are more likely to begin offering it.
Secondly, the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council was a major sponsor of the Indy 500, which featured spots that aired multiple times during the race. To view the ethanol spots, go to this page on the EPIC website. The television spots have run during all of the races so far this year, starting with Homestead in Florida.
EPIC also sponsored a major public and media event at the Indy 500 called the Ethanol Summit to educate people about ethanol’s benefits as a performance fuel. They have gotten major publicity from events held earlier this month at the National Press Club and Chicago Board of Trade.
Finally, you make a good point about the need for more information for retailers about incentives to offer ethanol-enhanced fuel and I have passed that along to EPIC. A good place for that information right now is the National Ethanol Vehicle Coalition site, which has a page devoted to retailer information.
Thanks again, Ethanol Crusader. Just curious, do you have some kind of cool super hero costume to wear when you are out crusading??
The 
Here’s today’s winner of the Indy 500, Dario Franchitti at the post-race press conference. He seemed like the most amazed guy in the world for having run and we certainly congratulate him.
This race today will go down as a strange one with all the cars running into the wall and the rain delay and then rain ending it early.
The race is back on after a lengthy delay due to rain.
Ethanol Team IndyCar Driver Jeff Simmons has held a top 3 position for much of the race. Just before the rain delay, Jeff held first place in the 91st Indianapolis 500. But, just as the Ethanol Team poster boy pulled into the pits to refuel, the yellow flag dropped pushing Jeff back to 7th. Indy Series officials are holding off on whether to call the race. With 113 laps completed, the race has progressed far enough to call the winner. As it stands right now, Tony Kanaan, Marco Andretti and Danica Patrick hold the top 3 spots.
Well the weather cleared up in time for the Indy 500 to get started. Here’s Super Bowl MVP Peyton Manning waving the green “e” flag to start the race here this afternoon.
The man that built The Ethanol Promotion and Information Council from the ground up is Board President Tom Branhan, CEO and general manager of 
Amidst the hustle and bustle of race weekend events, I caught up with 
The big story here in Indianapolis this morning has been the weather. It’s lightly raining now and the trucks are running the track to try to keep as much water off it as possible. You can’t race on a wet track.