The following piece originally ran as a news release created and distributed by the Renewable Fuels Association at: http://www.ethanolrfa.org/2017/10/rfa-data-more-than-4000-u-s-stations-offering-e85/
Drivers of flex fuel vehicles (FFVs), which can handle higher ethanol blends up to 85 percent, now have even more places to fuel up. According to E85prices.com, operated by the Renewable Fuels Association, there are now more than 4,000 stations throughout the U.S. offering E85.
There are more than 22 million FFVs on U.S. roads and now consumers have greater access to higher ethanol blends. Minnesota offers the most E85 stations, but states outside the Corn Belt have shown the greatest uptick in recent years. States like California, Texas, Florida, North Carolina and Pennsylvania have demonstrated tremendous growth in offering higher ethanol blends.
Greater consumer access to E85 is due to a combination of factors, including RFA’s overall market development efforts, the past Blend Your Own Ethanol Campaign, U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Biofuels Infrastructure Partnership (BIP) Program, and the ethanol industry-funded Prime the Pump initiative.
“Reaching this milestone is a tremendous achievement,” said RFA Vice President of Industry Relations Robert White. “Consumers with FFVs ought to have access to E85, whether they’re in Iowa, California or Florida. This expansion allows consumers with FFVs in many areas the opportunity to fuel with E85 for the first time. We applaud retailers for increasing efforts to bring further consumer choice to the market and we look forward to more stations opening up in the future.”
“Today’s news should also further show EPA that there is ample ethanol blending capability to accommodate higher Renewable Fuel Standard Renewable Volume Obligation requirements than what the agency has proposed,” added White. “If just half of the FFVs on the road today used E85, there would be more than 6 billion gallons of E85 demand, and you cannot ignore the growing demand from E15 and other blends. EPA must acknowledge this reality in its final 2018 RFS rule.”
E85prices.com is crowdsourced and offers updated prices and locations for E85, E15 and other ethanol blends from thousands of stations across the country.
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