February 10, 2006

General Motors - Live Green/Go Yellow Campaign

General Motors is beginning to promote E85 (a blend of 15% gasoline and 85% ethanol) and their line of Flex-Fuel vehicles in their advertising.

It is estimated that about 4 million vehicles in the U.S. are already E85 compatible. Many owners of certain models of major manufacturer cars and trucks don't realize that their vehicles are already capable of running on ethanol. To remedy this situation, the National Ethanol Vehicle Coalition has published a website listing all E85 compatible vehicles.

GM will be sending yellow fuel caps to the existing owners of E85 compatible vehicles. Later this year, all new GM FlexFuel vehicles will be equipped with yellow fuel caps at the factory.

The National Ethanol Vehicle Coalition also has a listing of all the E85 refueling stations in the nation. Expect this number to grow rapidly as E85 develops more awareness in the marketplace.

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GM Announces E85 Awareness Campaign
announcement from the National Ethanol Vehicle Coalition

General Motors announced January 8, 2006 a significant E85 awareness campaign at the Chicago Auto Show. The Live Green Go Yellow campaign kicked off during Super Bowl XL in ads promoting the use of the clean, alternative fuel in GM’s flexible fuel vehicles.

Several major Chicago buildings will be illuminated in yellow lights during the show symbolizing the corn used in creating the ethanol in the E85 fuel. Other outreach for this campaign will include GM “street teams” reaching out to Chicagoans in February with giveaways and a major presence in the 2006 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series and promotions with 2005 NASCAR Nextel Cup champion, Tony Stewart.

“GM is pursuing gasoline-savings solutions on many fronts on the way to our ultimate vision of hydrogen fuel cell-powered transportation,” said Elizabeth Lowery, GM vice president of environment and energy. “E85 ethanol burns cleaner than gasoline and is a renewable, domestic fuel that can enhance the nation’s economy and energy security.”

GM now has nine 2006 models that are compatible with E85: Chevy Impala and Monte Carlo; Chevrolet Silverado, Avalanche and GMC Sierra; Chevrolet Tahoe; and GMC Yukon, Yukon XL and Chevrolet Suburban. The automaker plans to add 400,000 of these vehicles to the fleet in 2006.

3 comments:

Calvin Jones said...

You seem to have the fuel security angle well covoured. I run a climate change blog, i thought you might like to link to, climate change is another strong reason to use biofuels.

http://climatechangeaction.blogspot.com

Anonymous said...

There seems to be little real consideration of the ramifications of "growing" oil- is the corn grown using petroleum based fertilizers? Is the fossil fuel to fertilizer to corn to fuel more efficient than going dorectly from fossil fuel to fuel?
Regardless of the need for fossil fuel based fertilizers,
can we be sure that farming fuel won't depleat our soils?
Burning biomass as fuel is a scarry idea... there are many alternate sources for fuel, but the production of food requires the utilization of biomass.

C. Scott Miller said...

"Growing oil" is only a problem if it competes with other uses for the crops. If we stay with only one feedstock - corn - then we need more fertilizer to keep from depleting the land and the higher demand raises the price for corn. If we use multiple feedstock - other crops, switchgrass, and agricultural waste - then we don't need to fertilize as much (crop rotation) and prices stay stable. If we use other cellulosic feedstock - urban and forestry waste - then we reduce the amount of petroleum from shipping (since we can then decentralize biorefineries) and the price is actually nothing because it wasn't grown and we would have to do something with the waste anyway.