engine-101's Blog

Yellow is the New Green
Date: Feb 1st, 2008 1:56:00 am - Subscribe
Mood: angelic


WARNING: The article you are about to read are strictly for color-blind persons only.

Yellow is the new green. Yeah, yellow as in the color of the sun (on a sunny weather, of course)!

"Live Green Go Yellow" - General Motors campaign is aimed at building awareness and market acceptance for E85 vehicles. As we all know, E85 is the alternative-fuel-idea combining 85 percent of ethanol and 15 percent gasoline.

"With the on-going concern over national energy policy, the need to have more renewable fuel choices such as ethanol blended fuels is a great energy option available today. This campaign will ask the simple question, ‘What if every vehicle was yellow?’ In a way, in the world of ethanol, yellow is the new green, since today its main source is from corn," said Brent Dewar, GM vice president of marketing and advertising.

General Motors is the pioneer in producing E85 flexible vehicles. This year, the company offers 12 different E85 models including the 2008 Chevy Suburban, 2008 Chevy Tahoe, 2008 Chevy Avalanche, the 2008 Chevy Impala, 2008 Chevy Silverado, 2008 Chevy Uplander and the 2008 Chevy Express.

This is part of GM's goal to have half of vehicle production be E85 flexible or bio-diesel capable four years from now. Producing E85 vehicles is one of the auto industry's efforts to counter global warming like what an Acura Legend brake caliper does to your Acura car. Just to remind you, pollutants cars emit everyday around the world is a major contributor to global warming. Gonna check my conscience, hey! Are you still there?

According to E85tips.com, E85 has the following benefits:

• 85 percent of E85 is made with renewable resources. Corn is the main feedstock for ethanol in the US due to its abundance and low price.
  
• E85 is easy to use and handle. E85 fueling equipment is slightly different and of similar cost to equipment used to store and dispense petroleum fuels.
  
• Using E85 reduces petroleum consumption. Use of E85 will reduce a fleet’s overall use of petroleum and replace it with a renewable-based fuel produced in the US.
  
• E85 is good for the environment. Beyond operational ease, E85 offers considerable environmental benefits.
  
• Flexible-fuel vehicles (FFVs) are available and affordable. FFVs specifically designed to run on E85 are becoming more common each model year, and are typically available as standard equipment with little or no incremental cost.
  
• FFVs have flexible fueling options. FFVs may operate on gasoline, and, in fact, most of the 4 million FFVs on US roadways do today.

Based on US Department of Energy projections, by 2030, the country could produce 90 billion gallons of corn and cellulosic ethanol, a non-food based ethanol made out of a variety of biomass resources such as waste from urban, agricultural, and forestry resources each year.

"Biofuels such as E85 ethanol gives consumers a real choice at the pump - a choice beyond regular, 'midgrade' or 'premium'. We believe that ethanol has the greatest near-term potential to displace petroleum and that is why we are committed to working with government, academia and industry to promote both supply and availability," Stephens added.

Yellow is undeniably the new green!

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