By DAVE BLOWER JR.
Farm World Editor

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — Those traveling Interstate 65 from Gary, Ind. to Mobile, Ala. now have the ability to make the entire trek on E85 fuel, thus making it America’s first Biofuels Corridor.
E85, a mix of 85 percent corn-based ethanol and 15 percent petroleum-based gasoline, has been touted as a clean, domestic source of fuel for motor vehicles. Similarly, B20 (which is a mix of 20 percent soybean-based diesel fuel and 80 percent petroleum-based diesel) is supposed to be better for the environment and good for farmers.

However, the availability of either biofuel at retail pumps has been scarce.

Through the coordination of more than a dozen partners, the Indiana Office of Energy and Defense (IOED) led an effort to make sure that there is a retail E85 pump for every quarter-tank of fuel for motorists along the 886 miles I-65. The IOED was awarded a $1.3 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to administer a program that would bring E85 and B20 retail pumps to I-65 exits.

Government agencies and other partners from Kentucky, Tennessee and Alabama all assisted in this effort.
Barry Seitz, the director of the Indiana Office of Energy and Defense, said this effort is noteworthy – in part – because of its location.

He said many Western states have been more proactive at integrating biofuels for their motorists.

“No offense to them, but we didn’t need the traditionally strong ethanol states of Illinois, Iowa and Minnesota telling us what to do,” Seitz said. “This was something that we had to figure out on our own. This is something we should all look at – federal, state and local – and feel really proud of.”

Through the IOED program, 31 E85 and five B20 pumps were added along the Biofuels Corridor in the four states. Specifically, the following number of retail pumps were installed:
•19 E85 pumps in Indiana

•One E85 pump in Kentucky
•Two E85 pumps in Tennessee
•Eight E85 and B20 pumps in Alabama

The high volume of new pumps in southern Indiana was by design. Kellie Walsh, the executive director of the Central Indiana Clean Cities Alliance and South Shore Clean Cities, Inc., said program administrators studied the precise locations of where new pumps should be located.

“We had to sit back and decide where can we put stations up that are going to do us some good, and southern Indiana was it,” Walsh explained.

To celebrate the new Biofuels Corridor, a news conference and open house is scheduled for 3-5 p.m., Oct. 9 at the Thornton’s station in Clarksville, Ind. Seitz said, even though partners will be driving north on I-65 from Alabama to join in the celebration, the appropriate spot to tout the accomplishment was in southern Indiana.

The fuel retailers that participated in building the Corridor include Family Express, GasAmerica, Speedway, Gas City and Good Oil in Indiana; Thornton’s in Indiana and Kentucky; TriStar Energy LLC of Tennessee; and Hons International, McPherson Co. and Merritt Oil Co. of Alabama.

Walsh said other sponsors of the effort include the Indiana Soybean Alliance, Indiana Corn, the Kentucky Clean Fuels Coalition, BioTenn, the Alabama Clean Fuels Coalition, the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council and the Clean Air Choice of the American Lung Assoc.