Region making ethanol, but not selling E85

LIMA - When David Rodney bought his Ford Ranger flex-fuel pickup in 2002, the dealer told him E85, a mostly ethanol blend vehicle fuel, was just around the corner.

Six years later, Rodney has to drive 45 minutes if he wants to fill up with E85, a fuel blend of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent unleaded gasoline.

The region has produced Ohio's first two ethanol plants in Lima and Leipsic. The engine in Rodney's truck was built in Lima. While more than 1,700 fuel stations in the country make E85 available, none exist in Lima.

The closest? A Marathon station that included an E85 pump since its opening in 2005 and a Meijer station in Findlay that just added E85 in July. After that, it's Bowling Green, Fort Wayne, Marion, Troy.

Rodney rarely gets to use E85, though he wants to. He tries to time needing a full tank with trips to places where he can get it, like a recent family trip to Toledo, when he stopped at a Perrysburg Kroger fuel station.

For Rodney, 54, a retired state hospital worker and Navy veteran, the issue is about the environment, national security and his own pocketbook.

"That money's being spent here in America instead of being sent overseas to people who often hate us and want to destroy us," Rodney said. "I don't understand why we don't have 10,000 pumps of this stuff everywhere and telling the [Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries] to stuff it, stuff it in their tanks."

If customers want E85, they should be vocal about it at the places they buy gasoline, said Michelle Kautz, deputy director of the National Ethanol Vehicle Coalition.

A national certification for E85 infrastructure is coming in the next few months, Kautz said, which should lessen companies' liability concerns and speed construction of pumps.

The state offers a retail tax credit to those who sell E85 and provides grant money for infrastructure to build new E85 or retrofit old gasoline pumps and underground storage tanks.

The federal government offers similar business help, Kautz said. The coalition is lobbying Congress to increase the federal infrastructure tax credit from a maximum of 30 percent or $30,000 of a project to 50 percent or $100,000 of a project.

The timing was right at the Findlay Meijer, store director Larry Marttila said, to add an E85 when other major repairs were needed. The new pump is going over well with customers who can use it, Marttila said.

In St. Marys, Marathon manager Deb Vining said her station has good demand for E85 from farmers and state employees who drive flex-fuel vehicles.

The price of E85 doesn't fluctuate like gasoline does. Vining hasn't changed her $2.89 price on E85 for at least two months.

Rodney paid $3.22 in Perrysburg, still a significant savings over the $3.75 Kroger wanted for unleaded. While E85 gets slightly less mileage per gallon than unleaded, the savings more than makes up for it, Rodney said.

"Regular gas just goes higher and higher," Rodney said. "It's a huge difference."