Flex fuel vehicle (FFV) drivers in southeast Alabama now have two new locations to get 85 percent ethanol fuel with the opportunity to get mid grade ethanol blends in the future.
Inland Stores (a subsidiary of Southwest Georgia Oil Company) has replaced all of its dispensers at their SunValley Market stores in Enterprise and Dothan, AL with new blender dispensers. The new dispensers offer the traditional Regular, Midgrade, and Premium gasoline products, and now E85. The new dispensers also have the ability to offer another ethanol-blended fuel at a later date. These two sites are the first in Alabama, and some of the few in the United States, to have E85 available from all of its dispensers, giving drivers of FFV the ability to fuel with E85 from any dispenser.
According to Inland officials, ethanol used at both Alabama sites is produced at the First United Ethanol plant located just across the Alabama-Georgia border in Camilla, GA, less than 100 miles away. In addition, the company acknowledges support from Bosselman BioFuels Solutions, Alabama Clean Cities Coalition, Growth Energy, Alabama Soybean and Corn Association, and First United Ethanol were all key to establishing these new E85 fueling sites.
“We congratulate and commend SunValley Market/Inland Stores for their forward thinking and for taking the initiative to provide dispensers with the capability to not only offer E85, but also the ability to offer future fuel with different blends of ethanol,” said Mark Bentley, Executive Director of the Alabama Clean Fuels Coalition. “In 2006, there were no public stations pumping E85 fuel in the state. Last year, considering both public and private stations, E85 fuel displaced over 700,000 gallons of traditional gasoline in the State of Alabama. With the addition of these two sites, there are now 15 public stations making E85 fuel available to the general public.”
Inland Stores owns and operates 17 SunValley Market & Deli convenience stores in southern Alabama and plans to continue adding E85 capabilities to more of its locations.