Tennessee Adds 6 Stations as Partner in Creation of Planet’s Longest Biofuels Corridor – The I-75 Green Corridor Project
Contact: JONATHAN OVERLY, JONATHAN@ETCLEANFUELS.ORG, 865-803-7555; KRISTY KEEL-BLACKMON, kristy@etcleanfuels.org, 865-974-9665; JENNIFER RENNICKS, JENNIFER@CLEANENERGY.ORG, 865-235-1448
Thanks to a huge, six-state partnership, Tennesseans now have greater access to the biofuels E85 ethanol and biodiesel in a B20 blend. Five E85 stations are now open in Cleveland and Chattanooga and nearby neighborhoods of Wildwood and Ft. Oglethorpe, and one B20 station is set to open in Knoxville this summer.
The week of June 9-13, 2014 marks the celebration of this project that is five years in the making. In 2009, an ambitious, multi-state project started in Knoxville, Tennessee. Through a grant funded by the Department of Energy Clean Cities Program, the I-75 Green Corridor Project began with the goal of allowing any American driver to traverse any portion of I-75 and be able to make the entire trip running on either biofuel. The project has significantly increased the availability of the biofuels E85 and B20 along the entire length of Interstate 75, which runs from Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan at the Canadian border to Miami, Florida. Biofuels stations were added with the intent of filling in gaps in biofuels access along the corridor and adding more stations in metropolitan areas, such that a station of each type could be found no greater than 200 miles apart along the entire length of the interstate.
This week we will be celebrating nearing completion of the project, and many partners from all six states and beyond will help spread the word about the project through web presence, social media discussions and picture sharing, press releases, and videos.
Since the project’s inception, over 3.3 million gallons of biofuels have been sold from stations associated with the project, and 2.6 million gallons of petroleum have been displaced. The project has now displaced over 61,000 barrels of oil, or alternatively, the U.S. has now produced over 61,000 additional barrels of renewable, American fuel! This also equates to:
ü25,222 tons of CO2 emissions avoided, or
üEliminating the annual CO2 emissions from 4,817 U.S. passenger vehicles
üThe amount of carbon sequestered by 18,946 acres of U.S. forests in one year
üSwitching 604,604 incandescent lamps to compact fluorescent lamps
üThe energy used by 2,109 homes for one year
Thus far along the entire corridor, E85 has been installed at 26 fuel stations, and B20 has been installed at 9, including the Clean Energy Biofuels Station in downtown Atlanta, Georgia located at 250 Arizona Ave. NE. These numbers are expected to increase in the coming months with another 6 stations coming online this summer. The project is now in its final year and has resulted in the 1,786-mile interstate becoming the planet’s longest biofuels corridor.
The significance of this project lies not only in the extensive length of American interstates involved or the six-state, multi-partner coordination that has taken place. There is also significance in the fact that American drivers now have a greater number of fueling options, as well as alt-fuel vehicles. There are nearly 100 flex fuel vehicle (or “FFV”) models on the market today. Couple that with the fact that, by conservative estimates, there are over 10 million flex fuel vehicles already on the road, and there is strong evidence for the need for more stations offering E85.
Conveniently, almost all diesel vehicles can run on biodiesel with few if any modifications to the vehicle. Even in the B20 marketplace, there are a growing number of B20-capable vehicles, from passenger to larger utility vehicles. With exciting developments like the B20 approved Chevrolet Cruze, more consumer-oriented, biodiesel-capable vehicles will surely come to market. More and more OEMs are responding to consumer demand for diesel vehicles, and some of those vehicles are approved for B20 use, such as the diesel 2014 Jeep Grand Cherokee and 2014 Ram 1500 EcoDiesel. Clearly, now is the time to put these fuels into action, and this endeavor is helping to diversify America’s fuel portfolio one gallon at a time.
See all the stations added in the project at the project Website; here is a list of the stations added in Tennessee:
| Partner | Biofuel added | Store address |
| Regal Fuels | B20 | 1206 Proctor StreetKnoxville, TN 37921 |
| Speedway | E85 | 2896 Paul Huff Parkway NWCleveland, TN 37312 |
| Speedway | E85 | 201 25th StreetCleveland, TN 37311 |
| Mapco Express | E85 | 405 Georgia 299Wildwood, GA 30757 * |
| Mapco Express | E85 | 399 Cloud Springs RoadFt. Oglethorpe, GA 30742 * |
* While these stations are geographically located in Georgia, both primarily serve the greater Chattanooga area.
In the coming months, more data will roll in to show the great impact of this project. We invite you to get more information and updates about the I-75 Green Corridor Project by visiting www.CleanFuelsCorridor.com.
Look for the I-75 Green Corridor Project on social media, including
–Twitter: @ETCleanFuels and the hashtags #I75, #Green
–Facebook: ETCleanFuels
–Flickr: Many photos from the project can be found here! http://bit.ly/i75-green-corridor-pics
–Instagram: ETCleanFuels
–More ideas here: http://cleanfuelscorridor.com/social.html
For more information about East Tennessee Clean Fuels Coalition: www.ETCleanFuels.org
The East Tennessee Clean Fuels Coalition (ETCleanFuels) is a nonprofit 501(c)3 working proactively with fleets, companies and other partners to reduce dependence on petroleum and improve air quality and sustainability. It is a voluntary effort and is built on partnerships to create positive change in Tennessee and beyond.