Originally published November 15 2005
Farm town in Wisconsin leads the march toward alternative fuels
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
The Landmark Services Cooperative, a new filling station in Cottage Grove, Wisc., offers ethanol, propane and biodiesel at its pumps.
The Landmark Services Cooperative here at the intersection of Cottage Grove Road and County N is billed as the first outlet of its kind in Wisconsin.
In addition to regular Cenex-brand gasolines, it offers "E-85" ethanol fuel for use in special AFVs, or alternative fuel vehicles; a "biodiesel" containing 5 percent soybean ethanol; and propane for engines that run on that cleaner-burning fuel.
The U.S. imports about 60 percent of its petroleum and reducing oil imports from the Middle East has gained significance in the light of the 9/11 attacks and the war in Iraq.
Wednesday's event in Cottage Grove was part of a nationwide commemoration of 1 billion gallons of petroleum being displaced since the 1994 launch of the Clean Cities program.
Not only are alternative fuels less polluting - in the case of biodiesel the soot reduction is significant - they also provide expanded markets for producers.
"Both our corn and soybean growers can enjoy some price stability," said former Alice in Dairyland Betsy Francoeur, now a spokeswoman for Landmark.
The state is only now seeing its first four ethanol plants come on line and still has no large-scale facility for processing soybeans into motor fuel.
"We need a way to get a first press of soybeans here," said Supervisor Brett Hulsey, who has been working with County Executive Kathleen Falk to shift the county vehicle fleet to biodiesel.
To achieve its tremendous production levels, modern U.S. corn farming makes relatively intense use of energy and chemicals.
Moreover, early ethanol plants were very energy intensive, raising concerns as to whether the transportation fuel being produced was worth the energy going into making it.
One of the most persistent critics of fuel ethanol, David Pimentel of Cornell University, has claimed it takes about 70 percent more energy to grow corn and make ethanol from it than goes into the ethanol.
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