Tennessee Misses Biofuels Goal
A Tennessee state audit found that the state agencies missed their goal of reducing their use of petroleum products by 20 percent. Legislation enacted in 2007 gave state agencies, universities and community colleges until January 1, 2010 to meet this goal.
“The 20 percent reduction was a challenging goal,” said Alan Jones, manager of the environmental policy office at TDOT. The problem, he noted, is that there aren’t enough E85 and biodiesel stations to serve all the state vehicles. According to TDOT, there are just 33 pumps across the state selling B20 and only 27 pumps provide E85.
About 9 million cars on the roads today are flexible fuel vehicles and nearly 139,000 located in the state of Tennessee. “A lot of those vehicle owners continue to use 100 percent unleaded and in fact, surveys have shown that a lot of those vehicle owners don’t even realize they can use E85,” he said.
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Joelle Brink
We have a very active Clean Cities group here in Knoxville (East Tennessee Clean Fuels Coalition) and have made quite a bit of progress in fleet migrations and increasing B20 and E85 pumps in the area. UTK is now running its vehicles on alt fuels and sponsoring alt fuel events and education on campus. In October we held a major EV show in Market Square, with vehicles owned by Coalition members.
The problem in the state is that progress is spotty. It takes a lot of expertise, work, time and contacts–and ultimately a professional coordinator with a staff– to convince fleet managers to fuel with biodiesel and ethanol or switch to electric power. Money is another obstacle. This year we will receive EPA and and DOE stimulus funds to install B20 and E85 pumps, and plug-in chargers along the I75 corridor. This will advance TDOT’s goals but efforts on this scale can’t be expected throughout the state. Our hope is that the presence of roadside alt fuel facilities will alert Tennesseans to the practical option of fueling with something other than petroleum.
Advanced BioFuels USA » Tennessee Misses Biofuels Goal
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Ken
We need to offer a choice of fuels at the pump.
Energy choice is energy security.
Why send money to countries that want to harm us for their oil.
Let’s improve the American economy with American fuels.
At the very least we can reduce our vulnerability.
If ethanol is 20% cheaper at the pump the consumer saves money.
Ethanol needs to be priced 20-25% below gasoline.
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