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ACE leads discussion with fuel retailers, equipment expert at ICGA’s High Octane Fuel Summit

Posted on 05/02/2019

Sioux Falls, SD (May 2, 2019) – American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE) Senior Vice President and Market Development Director Ron Lamberty moderated a panel discussion among flex fuel and E15 retailers, and a retail equipment sales and service provider today at the Indiana Corn Growers Association (ICGA) High Octane Fuel Summit at the Dallara IndyCar Factory in Speedway, Indiana.

ICGA rebranded its annual event this year, calling it the High Octane Fuel Summit, and making a greater effort to cover marketing and equipment topics in addition to policy discussions. One goal of the change was to attract more fuel retailers, who are likely to be interested in topics like those discussed by the panel Lamberty moderated. That discussion was entitled “Future fuels are coming. Are you ready?”

The panelists Tom Navarre of Family Express, Nathanial Doddridge of Casey’s General Store, and Martin Dunifon with Gasoline Equipment Services Company discussed real life E15 and flex fuel station conversion, benefits and challenges of offering higher ethanol blends, and the growth of ethanol sales in their markets."  

“Beyond sharing their experience, the panelists talked about what help they need from the ethanol industry,” Lamberty said. “With the summer driving season just a month away and lots of questions surrounding EPA’s rule to allow the sale of E15 all year, the marketers discussed the steps they took to add E15 to their fuel slate and what they’ve learned from offering the blend at their stations."

“Each panelist has different experiences in the ethanol fuel market,” Lamberty said. “Family Express began adding E15 in 2016 to stores throughout Northwest and Central Indiana and has sold E85 for more than a decade. Casey’s has been selling ethanol and E85 even longer, and recently did a successful test of E15 at several stations, leading to company plans to add the new product to more than 500 of their 2,000 stores.” Gasoline Equipment Services Company, an Indiana pump and equipment company, completed the panel to talk about what is required — and not required — to add E15 to a station's fuel slate. The company is a distributor for Wayne Fueling Systems, which provides retail fueling dispensers compatible and UL-Listed to E25 as a standard feature.

Kicking off the countdown to the IndyCar races, the Summit also featured complimentary admission to Dallara’s racing museum, street-legal race car rides, racing simulators and a green-screen photo booth in a race car.

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