Dave Sovereign from Cresco, Iowa has been busy. Last week he helped to convert the Fast Stop station he owns in his hometown to E15. Then he caught an airplane to Washington, D.C. to participate in the American Coalition for Ethanol’s (ACE) Biofuels Beltway March where he met with a number of freshman Congressman. Fast Stop, located in Northeast Iowa at 22268 Highway 9 West in Cresco, marks the fourth retailer in Iowa to offer consumers additional fuel choices at the pump.
Sovereign said from the time the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association helped him file the application to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to become an approved seller of E15, it only took about 45 days to when he began to sell the fuel. In the case of Fast Stop, Sovereign said they already had a blender pump in place so it was just a matter of adding E15 to the pump using EPA’s recommendations.
“Consumers need more renewable fuel choices to support our communities and keep dollars in our local economies,” said Sovereign. “Since flex-fuels were not available in Cresco, a group of local business leaders formed an LLC, purchased land and constructed a fueling location to remedy this 
situation. Also, with unblended 87 octane gasoline no longer being shipped through the pipeline this fall, ethanol blended fuels will dominate Iowa’s fuel market and we wanted to be on the cutting edge with E15.”
During his meetings with legislators, Sovereign discussed E15 and told his personal story about bringing E15 to his area. He said that the majority of those he met with were optimistic about ethanol and that the legislators appreciated his coming to DC to hear is story first hand.
Listen to the interview with Dave Sovereign interview here: Fast Stop in Cresco, IA Offering E15
Thank you for your efforts Dave. We need more people on the bandwagon.
The photo accompanying the article shows a responsibly-labeled pump offering a wide selection of ethanol blends: E20, E30, E85 and of course the E15 mentioned in the piece. This kind of consumer choice is what the market needs at the pump, and the wider range of fuels beyond these blends will gain greater acceptance when people can make an informed decision and the law protects business owners from liability for mistakes during filling.
A bill like Shimkus’ (R-IL) H.R. 1214 lets the EPA certify the dispensation of approved fuel blends; perhaps such measures are needed when so much anxiety about E15 has been ginned (or bourboned) up by vested oil and insurance interests who would like to keep gasoline as uncut as possible.