GoodFuels

Launching BYO Program for Ethanol

Corn growers and ethanol producers are giving a new meaning to the association between BYO and alcohol. Instead of BRING your own, it’s BLEND your own - ethanol, that is.

The BYOethanol partnership between the American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE), Renewable Fuels Association (RFA), the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) and state corn grower groups has the goal of installing 5,000 blender pumps nationwide over the next three years.

Ron Lamberty with ACE (left) says the program will educate retailers about the benefits of installing blender pumps and assist them with funding opportunities. “It’s a program to get out and inform petroleum marketers about the value of being able to see E85 and other blends of fuel using a blender pump.”

NCGA First Vice President Darrin Ihnen (center), a corn farmer from South Dakota says ethanol is a very important market for corn. “We need to take it (promoting ethanol) to the next level beyond just the E15 campaign. This blender pump program shows that you can use a higher percentage of ethanol in our motor vehicles.”

Robert White of RFA says the program will have many strategies for reaching retailers. “We’re throwing the whole kitchen sink at this one. The strongest piece will be information dissemination.” As part of the program, they will be at petroleum trade shows and conferences, advertise in trade magazines and develop a website. The website - BYOethanol.org - is expected to be launched next month.

The announcement of the initiative was made at the opening of the 22nd Ethanol Conference & Trade Show in Milwaukee this week where reporter Joanna Schroeder was on hand to interview Ron, Darrin and Robert about it. Portions of those interviews are included in this week’s “Ethanol Report.”

You can listen to “The Ethanol Report” on-line here:

Or you can subscribe to this regular podcast by following this link.

Watch video of the announcement here from YouTube.