District's First Ethanol Station Opens Thursday

WASHINGTON -- The District's first ethanol filling station opens Thursday at the Chevron on Wisconsin Avenue in Georgetown.

General Motors, the largest producer of flex-fuel cars, is helping dedicate the station. Flex-fuel cars can use gasoline, ethanol or any mixture of the two. GM has more than two million cars on the roads right now that are capable of using flex fuel technology.

"The vehicle is smart enough to understand and sense what level is in the fuel tank, and what is important to is that the E85 Ethanol displaces petroleum and it is a renewable fuel, so it is something we can produce here in the United States," says Beth Lowery, vice president of Environment and Energy for General Motors.

As for the price, it should actually cost less than gasoline.

"Generally, in the stations that we've been involved in around the country, it is about 20 cents cheaper than the gasoline at that station," Lowery says.

One setback with E85, which is made from corn, is that it gets slightly worse mileage than regular gasoline.

There is one other ethanol filling station in Arlington, Va. It's the Citgo at 801 S. Joyce St. and opened in 2000.

General Motors says people should expect more stations in the future in the District.

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