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Do you drive a flex fuel vehicle? If you do, you could be missing out on a significant money-saving opportunity every time you fill up. Ethanol, made from South Dakota corn, is now priced at around $1/gallon less than regular gasoline, and E85 along with other ethanol blends offer drivers the ability to save money, invest locally, increase their horsepower and cut down on their vehicle’s nasty emissions.

Locating an ethanol blender pump in South Dakota is becoming easier with more fuel retailers taking advantage of incentive programs, investing in new infrastructure and giving their consumers a choice between various fuel blends at the pump.

In case you were wondering, yes there is an app for that. The Renewable Fuels Association has created Flex Fuel Station Locator applications for the following devices:

Garmin and TomTom

iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch

Android

Start buying locally and save money today by seeking out ethanol blender pumps in your area or on your road trip route. For those who don’t live close to a blender pump, request that your neighborhood fuel retailer makes higher blends of ethanol available. With gas prices seemingly out of control and only getting worse we recommend that you go down the renewable route and turn to ethanol.

Wednesday morning, South Dakota House Bill 1216, “a bill to open up franchise agreements to ethanol blends” passed through the Senate Transportation Committee with a vote of 7-0.

The bipartisan bill from Representative Mitch Fargen and Senator Russell Olson was brought forward after gas station owners were unable to install blender pumps because of franchise agreements after attempting to use grant money from state legislation passed in 2010.

 “We are going to tell companies outside of our state they can no longer prohibit South Dakota owned franchises from selling ethanol,” said the bills co-sponsor, Senator Russell Olson. “This bill truly puts South Dakota first…and helps to free up our dependence on foreign oil.”

“We ran into places that were unable to install blender pumps because of their franchise agreements,” said Representative, Mitch Fargen, the bill’s prime sponsor. “This year the governor has a bill to expand the blender pumps program and we needed to do something with franchise agreement to give them the option of installing blender pumps across the state with the option of selling blends like E15, E30 and other various blends.”

“We are not requiring or mandating blender pumps, if you want to participate in the program, you can,” said, Harry Christianson of the Ethanol Producers of South Dakota. “It’s good for South Dakota, it’s good for the ethanol industry and it’s good for agriculture.”

HB 1216 now moves to the Senate Chamber.

South Dakota House Bill 1216, “a bill to open up franchise agreements to ethanol blends” passed in the House Transportation Committee on Tuesday morning. The bipartisan bill from Representative Mitch Fargen and Senator Russell Olson was brought forward after gas station owners were unable to install blender pumps because of franchise agreements after attempting to use grant money from state legislation passed in 2010.

“We had people telling us that their franchise agreements wouldn’t allow them to install blender pumps,” said district 8 Representative, Mitch Fargen. “This bill will open up franchise agreement so we can put in higher blends like E15 and E30 and install ethanol blender pumps.”

The bill has a number of co-sponsors and is being supported by the governor’s office as it expands on Governor Daugaard’s plan to continue building up the states ethanol blender pump infrastructure.

Fargen closed his testimony by saying, “This does not mandate anybody to put blender pumps in, it does not mandate anybody to use higher blends, all it does is get the restrictions out of franchise agreements giving local co-ops the option of installing blender pumps .” 

HB 1216 is expected to be read in the House of Representatives later on this week.

This post is for every consumer who will be fueling up this Fourth of July weekend. Below are just a few items to consider when making your choice at the pump.

Ethanol is grown, harvested, produced, bought and sold all in our country making it completely an American product. It all starts with our countries family farmers who go the extra mile providing bountiful corn crops year after year making it possible for our country to produce a clean burning and renewable fuel while meeting the demands of food and feed, and increasing our nation’s exports.

Just what has ethanol done for our country? How about provide 400,000 plus good paying jobs. Ethanol producers provide $53.3 billion to our nation’s GDP and the industry generated $15.9 billion in federal, state and local tax revenues in 2009.

Domestic ethanol production reduced our nation’s appetite for foreign oil by 364 million barrels in 2009.

Ethanol saves the average American Family about $300 per year.

As a South Dakotan, you can take pride in your state as they add additional blender pump infrastructure in 40 communities and will soon be the national leader in blender pump locations.

So as an American, utilize your fuel choice this weekend, a choice to use more clean-burning, economy boosting, renewable, home-grown ethanol.

Informational meetings on the Ethanol Blender Pump Grants available in South Dakota will be held at two locations this week:

• Wednesday, April 21, 3 p.m. at the Sioux Falls VFW

• Thursday, April 24, 3 p.m. at the Aberdeen VFW

The meetings will include information on the benefits of ethanol, the grant program, tactical issues and success stories from other South Dakota retailers who have installed blender pumps.

Retailers can receive a $10,000 grant per newly installed blender pump. The funds have been made available through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Blender pumps are a critical part of South Dakota’s effort to energize local economies, better the environment and to reduce our dependence on foreign oil.

Please contact your local fuel retailer and express your interest in having a choice at pump.

The grants have a very thin timeline with the application deadline being May 21.

Be sure to check out the South Dakota Tourism’s website for complete information.

On Thursday, South Dakota Governor, Mike Rounds, signed House Bill 1192 into law, setting aside one million dollars of federal stimulus money to be given out in $10,000 grants for each additional ethanol blender pump installed in the state.

“I’m proud that our state lawmakers and our governor are supportive of home grown, clean and renewable energy,” said Rep. Mitch Fargen, the bill’s primary sponsor. “This incentive will make it easier for our state’s gas station owners to provide higher blends of ethanol, the consumer will have a greater choice at the pump, and our farmers who grow the commodities used in the production of ethanol will have a greater market for their product.”

As many as 100 blender pumps could be added to the 40 currently in South Dakota. Gas station owners are allowed to receive more than one grant if they choose to add additional blender pumps. Each pump must have four blender hoses minimum, featuring a variety of blends consisting of E 10, E 20, E 30, E50, E 85 and regular gasoline.

 “We continue to be impressed by the excellent leadership that Rep. Mitch Fargen has shown,” said Teddi Mueller, of the South Dakota Corn Growers Assoc. “The opportunity to expand our state’s ethanol infrastructure is exciting and we look forward to working with the ethanol industry to make sure the funds are utilized.”

The grants will be available between April 1 and May 28. Even with a short time-frame, a number of grant applications are expected.

“I’ve already taken a number of calls from station owners and managers asking for details,” said Mueller.

South Dakota was the first state to install ethanol blender pumps and this bill shows the continual progress being made towards enhancing agriculture, improving our economy, environment and lessening our dependence on foreign oil.

With the additional infrastructure, more consumers will have a choice when filling their tank, and what better choice than South Dakota grown, renewable, clean-burning ethanol.