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??