Ethanol Helps Drive Wisconsin Agriculture

Thursday, August 28, 2008 8:13 AM CDT

Ashley Huibregtse, 61st Alice in Dairyland

Wisconsin’s Alice in Dairyland is driving the state in a brand new, fully-loaded E85 compatible Chevy Tahoe courtesy of the Wisconsin Corn Promotion Board and General Motors.

“It’s very appropriate that our state agricultural ambassador starts her year-long, statewide drive at an ethanol plant and that she does so driving our ethanol-fueled car,” says Ken Rosenow, Wisconsin Corn Promotion Board president and corn grower from Oconomowoc. “Having Alice in Dairyland drive the Wisconsin Corn Promotion Board’s E-85 Chevy Tahoe while she promotes agriculture across the state is the perfect symbol of how corn-based ethanol drives our state’s economy in an economical, fuel-efficient and renewable manner.”

As a public relations specialist with the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Alice in Dairyland annually travels the equivalent of a trip around the world during her 12-month tour, driving an ethanol capable E85 Chevrolet Tahoe donated by the Wisconsin Corn Promotion Board.

E85 is a blend of 85 percent ethyl alcohol produced primarily from domestically produced corn and 15 percent gasoline. Ethanol delivers similar performance as regular gasoline and is a renewable, domestically produced fuel that reduces sulfur and aromatic hydrocarbons for improved exhaust emissions performance. The E85 blend gives excellent performance because it is 109 octane.

The positive effects of ethanol reach well beyond the farm and provide returns for every Wisconsin resident through improved air quality, economic development and reduced dependency on foreign oil, explains Rosenow. “Transportation costs are a huge part of the pass-along cost of food and fuel for all consumer and local ethanol production can help keep food and fuel prices under control. In addition, Ethanol helps extend our domestic fuel supplies, provides a high-protein feed for dairy cows, hogs and poultry and contributes millions of dollars to local economies,” says Rosenow.

Each of the nine operating ethanol plants in Wisconsin injects an estimated $56 million into local economies each year and Wisconsin’s corn crop sells for an estimated $700 million annually. While half the state’s corn crop is used for livestock feed much of the remaining, annually grown corn crop fuels ethanol production, adding value by producing both locally grown, renewable fuel and distillers’ grains, a premium dairy and livestock feed.

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