Four students from Iowa Central Community College in Fort Dodge are about a third of the way through a weeklong cross-country journey to promote E-85 fuel. Alex Lundgren, a sophomore from Lehigh, says he and other agronomy students formed a campus club a few months back and wanted to find ways to get more Americans to try the fuel, which is made from 15-percent gasoline and 85-percent corn-based ethanol.
Lundgren says their ag club, I-Care, which stands for Iowa Central Aggies for Renewable Energy, wanted to promote the renewable fuel and came up with the idea of going coast-to-coast on nothing but E-85. They plotted a path from Washington D.C. to Los Angeles and singled out E-85 stations along the route. Lundgren and three other students left Monday in a Chevy Avalanche which was provided by G-M and Chevrolet.
They should reach Iowa tonight (Tuesday) for an overnight stop in Ankeny before leaving for Nebraska and points west tomorrow (Wednesday). Lundgren says he has something of a personal stake in E-85. Lundgren’s father farms in the Lehigh area and when more ethanol plants get on line in that area he says they’ll certainly be hauling in and selling corn to them. He says it just makes sense to use the ethanol-blended fuel as it’s cleaner burning, so it’s better for the environment and since it’s produced here, it will help reduce our nation’s dependence on foreign oil.
The students, and an adult advisor from Iowa Central, expect to reach L.A. on Saturday and will fly back to Iowa. The journey is expected to take them 31-hundred miles with stops at some 15 gas stations for E-85. For more information, surf to “cleanairchoice.org” or “e85fuel.com”.