For Release: August 08, 2007
DALLAS – Residents of the Lone Star State like to say “Everything is Bigger in Texas.”
The acceptance of E85 ethanol as an alternative fuel may not fit that description yet, but curiosity about E85, like the corn from which it is made, is certainly growing.
In Dallas, the fourth Texas city visited during the E85 Days of Summer Tour, more than 150 educators, staff and guests at Southern Methodist University turned out for an SMU-GM cosponsored Energy Diversity Forum on Tuesday, Aug. 7 – despite the campus being largely deserted between summer session and the fall semester.
“The turnout today showed there is a lot of interest in the whole subject of alternative fuels and flex-fuel vehicles,” said Bruce Bullock, Director of the Maguire Energy Institute at the university. “Consumers are clearly looking at their pocketbook these days concerning the price of gas and are looking for alternatives that might be out there.”
The Maguire Energy Institute is housed within the SMU Cox School of Business and encourages continued education in the study of marketing and policies related to oil, natural gas and electricity.
At a media roundtable and forum that followed, it was clear that education is crucial to the success of E85 in the marketplace.
“There is an important push to get the word out about E85 because frankly not many people are in the loop about where E85 has been and more importantly, where it’s going,” said Mark Peters, an executive committee member for the Sierra Club Fort Worth chapter. “The education has to come first before the demand will show up.”
GM’s grassroots effort to spread E85 ethanol awareness was boosted by Karl Doenges, Vice President and General Manager of Distribution and Management for Clean Fuel USA who brought his own E85 infrastructure development message and a pitch from the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council (EPIC).
“GM has been very wise about forming partnerships with groups like EPIC and Clean Fuel USA,” Doegnes said. “When we put in a fueling station, there is already awareness at a local level.”
E85 shared the forum with some discussion around the economics of big oil. Dr. James Smith, the Carey M. Maguire chair in oil and gas management at SMU, talked about the shift of control of oil reserves from large multinational companies to the members of the Oil Producing and Exporting Countries (OPEC).
But audience questions by far focused on alternatives to petroleum.
“The number of people here and the questions that they chose clearly showed there is a lot of interest in this subject,” said SMU’s Bullock.
So is Bullock in the market for a flex-fuel vehicle? “I have my eyes on a new Chevy Avalanche as we speak.”
CONTACT(S):
Kristin Rogers
630-961-6450
kristen.rogers@gm.com