URBANDALE, Iowa – Iowa’s ethanol industry has brought a significant amount of renewable fuel into the market in a short amount of time, but according to Petroleum Marketers and Convenience Stores of Iowa President Dawn Carlson, the infrastructure that contains that fuel hasn’t quite caught up yet.
“We’re looking at the future of what fuels we’ll be offering in the state of Iowa,” Carlson explains, “and as we look at higher blends of ethanol, and looking at our current situation with our tanks, they’re not all compatible with E-15, or higher blends. In fact, most of the tanks in the state of Iowa, are only [certified] up to 10 percent ethanol. So, as we examine the aging infrastructure, most of the tanks in Iowa are 20 to 25 years old.”
And that’s the tail end of the life expectancy of most underground fuel tanks. As their expiration dates get closer, so does the sunset on a penny-per-gallon surcharge on each gallon of gas sold in Iowa, a surcharge that funds the maintenance of those tanks. Carlson says PMCI will ask the upcoming legislature to extend the surcharge past mid-2016, when it’s set to expire.
But to overcome the issue of storing higher ethanol blends, Carlson says PMCI is looking for development of a new cost-share program to offset the expense of upgrading infrastructure, which she says costs retailers $320,000 to install just two tanks, which is typical.
“Because all of the tanks in Iowa are reaching their life expectancy,” says Carlson, “and as we look to protecting the environment and groundwater, we believe most retailers will in fact apply for cost-share grants to upgrade their tanks and and equipment so they can offer higher blends of ethanol. We’re kind of calling this the ‘green tanks program,’ because we foresee that every retailer out there would want to replace their tank with an E-100 compatible underground storage tank.”
To hear more about PMCI’s intentions to bring Iowa’s fuel infrastructure in line with its renewable fuel output, click the audio player above this story.
