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EPIC, South Dakota Corn Utilization Council announce blender pump programNew program to bring higher blends of ethanol to South Dakota South Dakota South Dakota is poised to lead the nation in raising public awareness for higher blends of ethanol with a new blender pump initiative announced May 1. Through a partnership between the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council and the South Dakota Corn Utilization Council, the initiative will help gas station retailers obtain funding and the equipment needed to sell blends of ethanol ranging from 20 to 40 percent to be used in flex-fuel vehicles. According to EPIC Director of Operations Robert White, South Dakota is the perfect place to launch this new program. "South Dakota is where the blender pump movement started and we are happy to partner with the corn producers there to get this initiative off the ground," said White. White explains that the blender pumps actually blend unleaded gasoline and ethanol in various levels. "It really is a multi-product dispenser," he said. "It's just like punching the octane button on a multi-product dispenser now, but instead of octane levels, you're choosing the level of ethanol in that blend." There are currently about 20 blender pumps in the state and the goal is to install a minimum of 100 new blender pumps over the next year. SDCUC Executive Director Lisa Richardson says South Dakota's ethanol industry is uniquely positioned to increase the use of higher ethanol blends to meet the Renewable Fuels Standard. "The two largest ethanol companies are here, people in South Dakota are highly educated about ethanol and our goal is simply that we need to figure out we can use more product and we need to give consumers the choice and the blender pump does just that," Richardson said. Richardson says they are directly providing the funding to help retailers obtain and install the blender pumps. "We are actually going to give gas stations $2500 from us with a match of $2500 from the ethanol industry to install one of these," she said. "And because it is an E85 pump they can also get up to a $30,000 tax credit from the federal government." All blender pumps will be branded with the stylized "e" logo and the program includes a marketing and PR campaign to increase public awareness. "We're going to have a website and we're going to work with our auto dealers to tell people where they are," said Richardson. "We're going to launch a whole campaign, everything from radio to billboards and let people know where they can go and fill up with higher blends of ethanol." White says that consumer choice is the goal. "There has been a lot of outcry for choices and in this situation drivers of flex fuel vehicles will have the opportunity to make that selection of an ethanol blend above ten percent," White said. In addition, he says that recent studies by the American Coalition of Ethanol indicate that flex fuel vehicles using 20 to 30 percent ethanol blends. 6/2/08 Date: 5/28/08 Advertisement
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