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ACE working to ramp up flex-fuel vehicle manufacturing

A long-time member of the American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE) Board of Directors says the industry is working to convince automobile manufacturers to ramp up manufacturing of flex-fuel vehicles.

Dave Sovereign represents ethanol plants in northern Iowa and southern Minnesota, and owns a convenience store in northeastern Iowa that specializes in selling ethanol blends.

He tells Brownfield production of flex-fuel vehicles—those capable of operating on E85–has slowed in recent years because of dwindling EPA incentives.

“Since they seem to no longer get the credit that they want for (flex-fuel vehicles), they’ve backed down in their production.”

In response, Sovereign says ACE launched the Ag Auto Alliance.

“They’re working on capitalizing on the octane values that ethanol provides in the fuel.  And we hope (that) as we educate lawmakers, policy makers, automobile manufacturers, engineers and designers, that we can capture some of this value and help them meet their mileage standards in the future.”

The Renewable Fuels Association estimates roughly eight percent of all vehicles in the U.S. are flex-fuel, and projects the number of stations offering E85 will reach nearly 5,000 this year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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