Gov. Martin O’Malley on Tuesday announced plans to install new ethanol pumps in Maryland for 1,200 state-owned vehicles that can run on the renewable fuel, but don’t have access to it.
The state recently installed two new pumps dispensing E-85 — a fuel blend that is 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline — in Annapolis, Baltimore and Hanover. New pumps are planned in the next year for Easton, Hagerstown, La Plata and Salisbury.
“While we’re America in miniature, we’re not so miniature that one pump is able to feed and fuel those 1,200 vehicles,” O’Malley said. “If E-85 is going to be widely used, it needs to be widely available.”
The state has not been in compliance with an executive order signed by then-Gov. Robert Ehrlich in 2002 requiring 50 percent of the state’s flex-fuel cars to use E-85 half of the time, said Chris Rice, who manages the transportation and alternativefuels program for the Maryland Energy Administration.
The new pumps cost about $100,000 each, Rice said, but ethanol fuel is 18 percent cheaper than the retail price of gasoline. The state plans to add about 200 flex-fuel cars to its fleet each year, O’Malley said.
The governor also announced a new mandate for the state’s Department of General Services to use a 5 percent blend of biodiesels in state cars whenever possible, potentially saving 180 million gallons of diesel fuel. He also asked state agencies to identify steps to transition to electric cars, which MEA Director Malcolm Woolf said cost the equivalent of 75 cents per gallon of fuel.
Woolf said several vehicle manufacturers are working on E-85 and plug-in electric hybrids for
consumers.
“Who wouldn’t want to operate a car today at 75 cents a gallon?” Woolf asked. “These are coming very soon to a dealership near you.”
O’Malley acknowledged savings aren’t guaranteed. Ethanol is primarily made by distilling grains such as corn, wheat and barely, potentially driving up the prices of those crops. The state is partnering with Salisbury University to study emerging forms of ethanol from non-food-based crops such as switch grass.
Tuesday’s announcement came one month after the Democrat unveiled plans to replace the state’s diesel-guzzling transit buses to hybrid electric by 2014.
