Minnesota leads the region with cleaner fuels
In Minnesota, the state again led the region in the growth and use of cleaner alternatives to traditional petroleum fuels in 2017, according to the American Lung Association in Minnesota. The U.S. Department of Energy’s Alternative Fuels Data Center lists 763 public and private alternative fuel stations located in Minnesota, compared to 601 in Wisconsin, 416 in Iowa, 124 in South Dakota and 76 in North Dakota. The alternative fuels sold in the state include ethanol, biodiesel, electric vehicle charging stations, propane fueling stations and compressed natural gas (CNG).
In 2017, 40 new E85 stations opened throughout Minnesota, five more stations than opened in 2016. E85 is an ethanol-based fuel that can be used in flex fuel vehicles designed to run on either gasoline or on ethanol blends like E85. The total number of public and private E85 stations in Minnesota is 372, the most of any state in the nation.
Stations offering the relatively new 88 octane gasoline showed the largest boost in 2017. It consists of 85 percent gasoline and 15 percent ethanol, so it is sometimes called E15. The lower cost, higher octane fuel was added to the choices at the pump at 182 Minnesota stations during 2017. Approved by the U.S. EPA for use in vehicles 2001 or newer, E15 is the fastest growing new fuel in the state. A total of 245 stations in Minnesota now offer E15.
For the fourth consecutive year, Minnesota increased the biodiesel content in most of the diesel fuel sold in 2016 to a 10 percent (B10) blend in the warm weather months and a five percent (B5) blend in the winter. On May 1, 2018, Minnesota will increase its warm weather biodiesel standard to 20 percent (B20), the first state in the country to use a B20 blend statewide. As in past years, next winter the blend will return to a five percent (B5) biodiesel blend.
Category: Fuels
