Cheap Gas and Autographs

John Davis

Gas America Pump PromotionOn my first pit stop on the road with Chuck, I caught up with EPIC and IndyCar drivers Jeff Simmons, Scott Sharp, and Sarah Fisher at GasAmerica on LaFayette Road in Indianapolis. EPIC teamed up with GasAmerica and offered E10 fuel, a blend of 10 percent ethanol and 90 percent gasoline to consumers for $2.25 a gallon. They IndyCar drivers manned the pumps alongside EPIC personnel and scribbled autographs for consumers. The special rate was available from 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m, but motorists I talked to said they were lining up around the parking lot as early as 8:00 a.m. David Petros joked that he came out to celebrate his birthday. He said he figured he would save some money and fill up his tank. David added that ethanol is moving the fuel industry in the right direction. Click here to hear more:

[audio:http://www.zimmcomm.biz/epic/petros-2.mp3]

When David pulled up to the pump he didn’t have to get out of his car. EPIC personnel were ready to top off his tank. He reminisces about fueling up in the old days:

[audio:http://www.zimmcomm.biz/epic/petros-1.mp3]

Kristian GibsonAnother consumer, Kristian Gibson, said she’s counting on ethanol to be more cost-effective and says she’s hoping that motorists will get a fairer price for fuel as the ethanol industry continues to grow. Kristian says her job requires a lot of travel around Marion County. For her, saving money on tank of gas is worth a couple hours for the wait. Hear what else she has to say about ethanol and its impact on the price of fuel:

[audio:http://www.zimmcomm.biz/epic/gibson-1.mp3]

EPIC officials say E10 fuel is warranted for use in any vehicle built after 1980, but the organization says E85 fuel, a blend of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline, requires Flex-Fuel Vehicles (FFV’s). EPIC estimates there are more than 6 million FFV’s on the road today. EPIC sponsored the promotion to highlight the first year that all vehicles participating in the Indy 500 race will use 100 percent fuel-grade ethanol.

2007 Indy 500 Photo Album

E85, EPIC, Ethanol, Flex Fuel Vehicles, Indy Racing, News, Promotion

Gas America Pump Promotion

Chuck Zimmerman

Gas America Pump PromotionIt was a long day out at the Gas America ethanol pump promotion today. Here’s Team Ethanol car driver Jeff Simmons entertaining representatives from Gas America. On the right is Laura Dolenz, Gas America Marketing Director. I interviewed her about the promotion and how and why they decided to put this event on today.

Laura says that Gas America has a real commitment to renewable fuels like ethanol and has had it included in their gas since 1980. She says they just never promoted that fact until now. She credits the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council with approaching them to see if they would be interested in doing this promotion. I interviewed her early before the gas pumps started but she was already very pleased with the way things were going.

You can listen to my interview with Laura here: [audio:http://www.zimmcomm.biz/epic/indy-07-dolenz.mp3]

Many of the pictures that Laura McNamara and I are taking here this week are being put into an online photo album which you can find using the following link:

2007 Indy 500 Photo Album

Audio, EPIC, Ethanol, Indy Racing, News, Promotion

Cheap Gas In Indy

Chuck Zimmerman

Gas America Pump PromotionActivities we’re covering here in Indianapolis got started with a pump promotion at Gas America on Lafayette Rd. not far from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. It was an unbelievably successful promotion. We had hundreds of cars lined up for hours to get their chance at $2.25/gallon gas containing 10 percent ethanol. The price was set by the qualifying pole position speed for this weekend’s race.

I think every TV station was represented out here today covering the event. We had several helicopters hovering overhead and several radio stations doing live remotes. All in all I’m sure the folks at EPIC are very please with how things went. Laura and I have more pictures and some interviews for you which we’ll post just as soon as we can. We’ve got to be on site for one more promotional event that’s taking place this afternoon.

EPIC, Ethanol, Indy Racing, News, Promotion

Introducing Laura McNamara

Chuck Zimmerman

Laura McNamaraI’d like to introduce you to Laura McNamara. She’s the newest contributing editor to Domestic Fuel and other ZimmComm New Media news blogs. Laura is with me here in Indianapolis this week helping with our coverage of the Indy 500 and all events related to ethanol.

Laura spent the last nine months covering Missouri state poltics for a statewide radio network, The Missourinet. Before working at The Missourinet, Laura spent last summer working in Rome, where she mostly covered news from the Vatican. Her work at the television news agency, RomeReports, also included coverage of a Roman fashion show and up-and-coming European soccer stars. Laura earned her broadcast journalism degree from the University of Missouri-Columbia. While a student, Laura also worked as a television reporter and fill-in anchor for KOMU NewsChannel 8 in Columbia and as a radio reporter for Missouri Digital News out of the Capitol in Jefferson City. Laura wants to expand her reporting experience by covering events all over the world and we’re happy to be working with her. I think you’ll find reports from her here on Domestic Fuel from a variety of locations in coming months.

Miscellaneous

Indy 500 Race Week

Chuck Zimmerman

2007 Indy Ethanol SummitIt’s race week in Indianapolis and that means working with the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council once again since this will be the first Indy 500 with all the cars running on 100% ethanol fuel. There are lots of activities planned to promote ethanol this week. In fact they’ve already started. I’ll be covering as many of them as I can and this year I have some help. More on that later.

One of the main events takes place this Thursday. It’s the Ethanol Summit which will take place at the race track.

Learn more about the benefits of Ethanol and its use as the official fuel in this year’s 91st Running of the Indianapolis 500. A variety of ethanol industry leaders will be on hand to speak about a wide range of ethanol issues, from performance, environmental and economic benefits, to E85 initiatives, growing consumer demand and the renaissance of rural America. Speakers include:

Jeff Simmons # 17 Team Ethanol Driver
Will Steger, Will Steger Foundation
Tom Slunecka, Ethanol Promotion and Information Council (EPIC)
Terry Angstadt, President IndyCar Series
Jim Gentry, Gas America
Thomas Dorr, Under Secretary for Rural Development
Dave Vander Griend, ICM, Inc.

We’re going to have all the sights and sounds we can post so stay tuned to Domestic Fuel from Indy town.

EPIC, Ethanol, Indy Racing

North Dakota Touted for Wind, Renewable Fuel Potential

John Davis

Federal officials say North Dakota is poised to be an energy giant. This story in the Houston Chronicle quotes John Mizroch, the principal assistant secretary in the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, as the keynote speaker Monday at a renewable fuels conference at Bismarck State College:

“This state, it seems to me in particular _ which does have rich resources in energy and underused resources, particularly in wind _ I think could be an energy giant,” he said.

Mizroch said the state’s potential for wind energy is huge.

Sen. Byron Dorgan“It’s more than 300,000 megawatts of good wind power. The problem is, as with certain things in life, the wind energy is not where the populations are,” he said.

And of course, the farming state has plenty to contribute to ethanol and biodiesel production. North Dakota Sen. Byron Dorgan was a co-sponsor of Monday’s conference. He said his home state could turn out a million gallons of renewable fuels each year by the year 2012. Dorgan wants Congress to require refineries to produce and use at least 36 billion gallons of renewable fuels by 2022.

Biodiesel, Ethanol, Wind

No-till, Biodiesel Helping Farmers’ Bottom Lines

John Davis

Farmers are facing the same $3-plus-a-gallon fuel costs everyone else is today. According to this story in the Peoria (IL) Journal Star, Patrick Kirchhofer, manager of the Peoria County Farm Bureau says farmers can save by leaving residue on their fields, not plowing them. A University of Illinois study says a 1,000-acre farm that might normally spend $29,500 in fuel could save as much as $13,000 by using no-till.

And farmers are saving money by using homegrown biodiesel in their equipment:

Higher gas prices are also encouraging the use of biofuels by farmers, said Kirchhofer. “While higher gas prices aren’t good for either farmers or motorists, it does encourage the development of alternatives to imported oil,” he said.

One of those alternatives, biodiesel – a blend of vegetable oil and diesel fuel – is a favorite among farmers, said John Papenhause, an energy specialist with Agland FS in Pekin. “I’d say 80 to 90 percent of the farmers around here use some blend of biodiesel,” he said.

Biodiesel

Truly Flexible Fuel Engines

John Davis

Transonic CombustionVenture capitalists are dumping an unspecified amount of money into a company called Transonic Combustion… a company working on engine compnents that would be able to run on any type of fuel – biodiesel, ethanol, gasoline, vegetable oils – just about anything.

Check out this story from the tech news blog section of C/Net.com:

The somewhat secretive company has come up with a highly efficient combustion system for conventional engines that increases gas mileage. It also allows cars to run on different fuels, which could help goose sales of things like biodiesel. There are other techniques for allowing engines to run on a variety of fuels, but they aren’t widespread. Transonic has built single-cylinder prototypes and will now try to build a four cylinder engine. It hopes to demonstrate the technology to the auto industry more fully in 2008.

Biodiesel, Ethanol

The Greening of Indy

Cindy Zimmerman

e-podcast When the green flag drops this weekend, over 300 million people across the globe will be watching and listening live as the ladies and gentlemen start their engines for the greenest Indy 500 in history.

This month, the “Greening of Racing” has really been in the spotlight, with major events at the National Press Club and the Chicago Board of Trade. This edition of “Fill Up, Feel Good” features comments from CBOT Chairman Charlie Carey, USDA Undersecretary Tom Dorr, EPIC Executive Director Tom Slunecka, IndyCar Series President Terry Angstadt, race car team owner Bobby Rahal, and IndyCar drivers Jeff Simmons and Tony Kanaan.

The “Fill up, Feel Good” podcast is available to download by subscription (see our sidebar link)
or you can listen to it by clicking here (7:30 MP3 File): [audio:http://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3?http://www.zimmcomm.biz/epic/epic-podcast-5-22-07.mp3]

The Fill Up, Feel Good theme music is “Tribute to Joe Satriani” by Alan Renkl, thanks to the Podsafe Music Network.

“Fill up, Feel Good” is sponsored by the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council.

Audio, EPIC, Ethanol, Fill Up Feel Good, Indy Racing, News, Racing

New York Opens E85 Station

Cindy Zimmerman

Flex-fuel vehicle drivers in the Empire State now have at least one place to fill up with 85 percent ethanol.

NEVCThe National Ethanol Vehicle Coalition (NEVC) reports that Campus Mobil, located near the State University of New York Albany campus, held a grand opening for the first public E85 pump this week.

KNC Holdings, the company which operates Campus Mobil, has a second E85 station opening soon in Warrensburg, New York.

KNC president Christian King, who is selling the fuel for $0.54 below the cost of unleaded gasoline, anticipates having an even greater per gallon savings due to constantly rising costs of traditional gasoline. “Today is the first step for New York consumers to do their part in helping to reduce our dependence on foreign oil by purchasing E85,” said King.

According to NEVC, this station development effort, combined with the estimated six new ethanol plants being planned in New York’s upstate region, is moving the Empire State toward the road to true energy independence, improving air quality in the balance.

E85, Ethanol, Flex Fuel Vehicles, News