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Jul 21, 2006 9:10 am US/Central
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Project Energy: Flex Fuel Conversion
by Don Shelby
(WCCO)
There are 6 million flex-fuel vehicles on the road in the United States that run on either ethanol or gasoline. The problem is those vehicles are seldom, if ever, filled up with ethanol.
For that reason Minnesota, along with the rest of the country, remains stuck between the egg and the chicken, between the petroleum past and the energy crop of the future.
Ethanol, it's been said, is the global fuel of the future. If that's true, then Minnesota is the center of the universe.
People wonder, however, if ethanol can really become the fuel of the future, when big oil controls the fuel of the present.
Minnesota is putting itself in the middle of that fight.
"It's as simple as they have essentially a monopoly on fossil fuels," said Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who has been trying to get the oil companies to free up one of the three pumps at gas stations for E85.
Letters from big oil companies show they stand in the way of ethanol.
"We're addicted to it, unfortunately," said Pawlenty. "And sadly in our country they want to keep the monopoly and when some alternative suppliers come up and say, 'Hey, we'd like to be in the market too,' the incumbent monopoly isn't real excited about the competition."
That means we're stuck in a chicken and egg debate. Automakers won't make more ethanol vehicles because there's not enough ethanol pumps because there aren't enough ethanol vehicles on the road.
There are roughly 200 million passenger cars in this country. If starting Thursday, every new car built was a flex-fuel model, it would take about 17 years to switch out every car.
That could be done faster if current cars could be converted to flex-fuel and that's what Larry Olsen, a South Dakota corn farmer, did with his 1997 Lincoln Town Car. After 5,000 miles, he's noticed only a few gallons difference per mile with ethanol over gasoline.
"Most of the time, it's been the average of one to two miles a gallon," Olsen said. "It hasn't been the, you know, 20 percent loss like what the industry is claiming."
Olsen used a conversion kit made by Flex Tek. The technology was invented in Brazil, where no foreign oil is imported and the country runs on an ethanol fuel economy.
"More than 50,000 vehicles are running on this technology in Brazil today," said Kevin Whited, the sales manager of Flex Tek.
Critics have said E85 can ruin engines but most vehicles are already built to run with 10 percent ethanol and ethanol is cleaner.
"It will perform much better with ethanol," Whited said.
At a shop in Long Lake, Minn. Brad Bristol and Flex Tek mechanic Kevin Burrell converted a BMW so it can run on either ethanol or gasoline.
It took 15 minutes, but the little engine modification, according to an obscure Environmental Protection Agency memorandum, is a violation of the Clean Air Act.
The memo was written at a time that didn't even envision ethanol conversions.
"We don't have to invent the wheel here," Pawlenty said. "Brazil already did it. The company that did it in Brazil also has a presence in the United States. We could take those kits, we could have the University of Minnesota or Minnesota State at Mankato do tests on various makes and models of cars about emissions, deliver those research results to the EPA and encourage them to use us as a pilot project or change the law all at once."
Changing the EPA rules would require congressional action.
Minnesota Congressman James Oberstar, the ranking Democrat on the House Transportation Committee, has agreed to take the lead.
"We are the largest ethanol producer," Oberstar said. "We've lead the nation in the ethanol issue. It would be a logical next step to lead the country in conversion, but it has to meet EPA standards and it has to be at a reasonable price."
Oberstar is arranging for state leaders to meet with Flex Tek. They'll discuss the conversion technology and bring results to the EPA.
In the meantime, Pawlenty said he wants to offer tax breaks for low and moderate income families who want to convert their vehicles to run on ethanol.
A group called the National Ethanol Vehicle Coalition is critical of the conversion kits and it turns out, the coalition is supported by major auto manufacturers, which want people to buy new vehicles, not convert old ones.
(© MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)