Michigan lawmakers urge Bush to press for more E85 stations

Washington (Platts)--13Jun2006

Sixteen members of the Michigan congressional delegation Tuesday urged
US President George Bush to ask major oil companies to increase the number of
stations providing E85, a biofuel blend that is 85% ethanol.

"There is a critical missing piece in our nation's efforts to reduce our
reliance on oil," the lawmakers wrote. "A major barrier to the use of Flexible
Fuel Vehicles to reduce oil consumption is the lack of fueling stations that
provide E85."

The Michigan delegation said providing consumers access to E85 would help
to reduce US reliance on foreign oil, decrease greenhouse gas emissions and
would be necessary to meet the demands of the increased number of flexible
fuel vehicles being produced by Detroit automakers.

Nearly six million flexible fuel vehicles that are capable of running on
E85 are on the road today, and the US auto industry has committed to build
more than one million new FFVs annually by 2008. However, less than 1% of
fueling stations--only 600 out of the 170,000 US gas stations in the
US--offer E85, which prevents the FFVs from achieving their maximum energy
efficiency, the lawmakers said.

"Without significant steps to spur development of the necessary E85
infrastructure, all of the efforts to increase the production of ethanol and
availability of FFVs will be for naught," the Congress members wrote.

--Cathy Landry, cathy_landry@platts.com

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