I spoke with Greg from Pearson Fuels yesterday about the possibility of E85 expansion in the bay area. I shared with him my intent to go to E85 as soon as it was practical and that there are others who would be on board. Distance to the pump is one of the issues. He said a few really interesting things which I found important enough to share with you.

1. E85 will get more expensive. Probably closer to 89 octane due to the E85 related tax cuts expiring.

2. New grants will be signed in early 2012 which will enable the further expansion of E85 by pearson fuels.

3. Area of focus is San Francisco and the greater bay area.

I pointed out that there used to be a pump in FF which is no longer there. And the Vallejo area would be perfect location because vacaville is too far and nobody is going to cross a bridge to walnut creek/concord to fuel up. He responded to that by telling me about their new service which will no doubt be more expensive than buying E85 at the pump, but also takes away the supply limitations.

In 2012 Pearson will start offering a delivery service where you can buy either 55 gallon drums or 5 gallon containers of E85. This could be huge for tuners who don't have pumps nearby but need the fuel to tune cars and and also consumers who constantly need the fuel.

One plan is to use the grants to retrofit existing tanks making them E85 ready. They could also use existing pumping facilities by replacing the 89/midgrade fuel (which no one ever uses ever and its just a blend of 89 and 91). If you want E85 at your local station, stop in and tell the station owner. If they bite, put the station owner in touch with Greg Jones at Pearson (8 5 8) six 9 nine- 1078.

 

Not that I don't welcome anther vendor, but Propel already has several stations in the bay area that have E85

 

Yup. Oakland, Berkeley, Redwood City, etc.

 

True... Just none which are convenient for my area. I'm not crossing a toll bridge to get gas. I'm also not driving 45 mins roundtrip. If San Francisco got one E85 pump I'd switch. If the vallejo, benicia, american canyon area got just one pump I'd switch.

 

i like e85 bercause it great on power but do you know that it takes about 1.3 gallos of desel to get e85 to the pump so that we can fill up, with that said i have a feeling it will soon cost a lot more!

 

I know everyone loves E85 for the power, AND its cheaper. But what about the MPG hit? Don't most people on E85 get like 1/3 worse gas mileage? Where I live theres an E85 station about 2 miles from my house, but how do you do long trips?

While E85 is great for race cars and tuners, its not practical for someone who drives their car and therefore I don't think you will get anywhere near the signatures you need.

 

25,000 signatures is a pretty big amount to get done by January 8th but I signed every little bit helps I guess.