STATE WILL TEST E-85 CONVERSION KITS

08/11/2006

Associated Press

Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty said Friday the state would start testing conversion kits that allow E-85 fuel to be used in vehicles built to run solely on gasoline.

Pawlenty said he hopes tests done at Minnesota State University, Mankato, will lead the way for nationwide use of the kits, which have not been approved by the Environmental Protection Agency.

The EPA has expressed concerns about how the kits would affect vehicle emissions, Pawlenty said.

“We’re going to take that research and use it as the convincing point to get the EPA to embrace, authorize or do their own certification of these kits,” Pawlenty said.

He said the EPA has been “somewhat noncommittal” about his proposal, but EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson showed some interest in a written statement Friday.

“Through the work of partners like Minnesota State University-Mankato, President Bush and EPA are moving alternative energy breakthroughs like E-85 from the labs to the streets,” Johnson said.

In a recent letter to the agency, Pawlenty laid out the upsides of broadening the market for the fuel, which contains 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline.

The kits, which cost between $700 and $1,500, will be tested at the university’s Center for Automotive Research on a variety of vehicles.

Pawlenty cited Brazil as a country that is weaning its dependency on foreign oil. There, most cars burn either 100 percent ethanol or gas that is 24 percent ethanol.

In the past session, the Legislature passed a law mandating that all gas sold in Minnesota must contain 20 percent ethanol.