The stumbling block to going green has often been the lack of refuelling infrastructure in place – but now drivers along one American interstate have no excuse not to fill up with biofuel.
Interstate 65, which stretches from Gary, Indiana, to Mobile, Alabama, now has E85 ethanol and B20 biodiesel available along its entire 886 mile length. This means that a driver is no more than a quarter of a tank away from a participating E85 retailer.
The project, which has taken $1.3 million of federal cash, has funded 31 E85 and five B20 stations across the states of Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee and Alabama as well as one biodiesel blending facility on the Indiana-Ohio border. There are now 19 E85 pumps in Indiana; one in Kentucky; two in Tennessee; while Alabama has eight E85/B20 pumps.
To celebrate the completion of the project, officials and partners conducted a Fall Corridor Drive last week with one group driving north from Mobile and the other starting in Gary and driving south. They then met in Clarksville, Indiana.
The project marks a substantial advancement in the availability of biofuels. As late as 2005, there were no E85 or B20 fuelling stations along I-65. However, now there are 123 in Indiana, 50 in Tennessee, 34 in Kentucky and 13 in Alabama.
