EIA: E85 fueling station availability is increasing, but slowly; in 2% of all retail stations
07 March 2014
The number of retail fueling stations offering E85 blend (up to 85% ethanol) has grown rapidly since 2007, according to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA). Currently, 2% of all retail stations (approximately 156,000 outlets) in the United States offer E85, serving the approximately 5% of the US light-duty vehicle fleet capable of running on E85.
Retail stations selling E85 have historically been concentrated in the Midwest, where they benefit from a readily available ethanol fuel supplied to blenders.
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According to the Alternative Fuels Data Center (AFDC), Minnesota continues to lead the nation, with 336 E85 retail locations. However, in recent years, states outside of the Midwest have experienced some of the fastest growth. The share of nationwide E85 stations in the five traditional ethanol-producing states of the Midwest fell from 54% in 2007 to 36% in 2013.
In 2007, the earliest year for which state-level data are available, the majority of E85 stations were located in five states: Minnesota, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, and Wisconsin. While states in the Midwest corn-growing region continue to add significant numbers of new E85 retail locations, California, New York, Colorado, Georgia, and Texas have also experienced rapid growth of E85 availability, adding more than 49 retail locations each between 2007 and 2013.
California and New York have seen some of the fastest growth in new E85 fueling stations, increasing from fewer than a dozen stations combined in 2007 to more than 80 stations each in 2013. Only two states (New Hampshire and Alaska) currently have no E85 fueling stations, compared to nine that had none of these stations in 2007.
Growth in the number of E85 fueling stations has slowed in the past two years. The number of E85 fueling stations in the United States almost doubled between 2007 to 2011, from 1,229 to 2,442, but only increased by 7% from 2011 to 2013, when the total reached 2,625.
With the exception of New York, the Northeast continued to see slow adoption of E85 by retailers. In 2007, there were no retail stations selling E85 in New England, and by 2013, only 13 had been added, with most located in Massachusetts. Several state—Minnesota and North Carolina—reported fewer E85 retail locations in 2013 than the year before. This decline contributed to the slower rate of growth in the number of E85 retail outlets observed during the past two years.
Why use more edible corn and sugar cane derived ethanol for our fuel guzzling cars when so much clean tar sand is available?
Posted by: HarveyD | 07 March 2014 at 01:24 PM
Almost any plant-based material can be an ethanol feedstock because all plants contain sugars and/or staches. In the US corn serves as the feedstock for most ethanol production because corn is America's leading crop, however the Renewable Fuel Standard limits production of ethanol from starch-based feedstocks to 15 billion gallons to ensure there are enough feedstocks to meet demand in livestock feed, human food, and export markets so if america ever hits that they will have to get the balance from some of the other feedstocks.
Posted by: ai_vin | 07 March 2014 at 07:03 PM
Clean tar sand? LOL.
Posted by: Account Deleted | 08 March 2014 at 07:33 AM