---

'E85': Environmentally Friendly Fuel Comes to Mid-Michigan

3 March 1998

'E85': Environmentally Friendly Fuel Comes to Mid-Michigan, Announces Corn Marketing Program of Michigan

    LANSING, Mich., March 3 -- A new, environmentally friendly
automotive fuel arrived in mid-Michigan today when Ball Park Mobil service
station in Lansing began offering customers "E85."
    The fuel is 85 percent ethanol, which is made from corn.  It also contains
15 percent gasoline.
    Michigan Department of Agriculture Director Dan Wyant joined the E85
celebration at the station and pumped the first tankful into a 1998 Chrysler
minivan, which is one of the first flex-fuel vehicles designed to use ethanol.
    "This new cutting edge fuel is a winner on all fronts," said Wyant.  "It
sharply reduces tailpipe emissions, especially of the 'greenhouse gases.'
It's renewable, so it will boost our agriculture economy and at the same time
it will cut American dependence on foreign oil."
    When blended with gasoline, an acre of corn can fuel four cars for a year
-- that's 400 gallons less imported oil a year.  The use of ethanol eliminates
$900 million worth of imported oil yearly.
    Keith Muxlow, Executive Director of the Corn Marketing Program of Michigan
(CMPM), said motorists will be hearing a lot more about E85 in the coming
months.
    "All of the Chrysler Corp.'s 1998 flexible fuel minivans with six-cylinder
engines will be equipped to use E85 of regular gasoline," Bruce Lackey, owner
of Capitol Chrysler said.  "That means there will be several hundred thousand
potential E85 customers on the road soon, and that's just the start."
    "Currently, only about 40 service stations across the county, including
one in Detroit, are selling E85, but more are coming," said Earl Collier,
President of CMPM.  "We're confident that number will start to climb sharply
as more Flex Fuel vehicles are on the roads and drivers learn about all their
benefits.  Soon, E85 will be available at hundreds of stations."
    "This is a fuel whose time has come.  It will just take a few years to put
the infrastructure in place to make it widely available," said Muxlow.  "That
is the next hurdle for E85, because the vehicles are coming in significant
numbers and the demand for E85 will be there."
    Muxlow pointed out that widespread use of E85 offers farmers an important
new market.
    "One of the challenges facing modern farmers is finding new uses and
markets for their commodity.  Making E85 from corn provides a significant use
for corn and other grains and a major new market," Muxlow said.
    The Corn Marketing Program of Michigan is a nine-member group of farmers
appointed by the Governor to oversee the corn check off program.  Michigan
corn producers contribute one-cent per bushel of corn sold to be used for
research, market development and education.

SOURCE  Corn Marketing Program of Michigan