Pat Tate drove into the Citgo Quik Mart in Annapolis and stopped in front of an odd-looking fuel pump. It featured pictures of corn stalks waving in a blue sky and advertised a price per gallon - $2.95 - 9 cents cheaper than the gas at the next pump.
Tate filled up his car with "E85," a mixture of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline. The gas station, one of three in Maryland to sell the fuel, has seen a sharp increase in customers filling up on E85 over the past year - a trend across the nation as soaring gas prices and the Iraq war have attracted drivers more to a home-grown alternative to gasoline.
"Anything you can do to reduce your use of oil, and lessen your emissions into the environment, the better," said Tate, 64, who is director of architecture and engineering at the University of Maryland, Baltimore. "We are only borrowing the Earth, and we owe it to our grandchildren to leave it as pristine as we can."
He was driving a state-owned Dodge Stratus with a "flex fuel" engine designed to run on either gasoline or ethanol. Car makers have been building and marketing an increasing number of these flex fuel vehicles, with 5 million on the road today, about 2.5 percent of the nation's cars. Many are owned by government or university fleets.
Five years ago, the U.S. consumed about a billion gallons of ethanol annually. Since then, consumption has multiplied to almost 6 billion gallons a year, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.
"There has been a 50 percent increase in ethanol use over the last year alone, and there are now a lot more cars available that can run on E85," said Craig Stevens, a spokesman for the Energy Department.
General Motors launched a "Live Green, Go Yellow" ad campaign in January, promoting Avalanches, Suburbans, Impalas and other vehicles that can run on the fuel brewed from corn.
"E85 is one way we can help encourage our nation's energy independence," said Dave Barthmuss, a GM spokesman. "I can't remember the last time I saw a Marine division guarding a corn field in Iowa."
Now that more gas stations are selling E85 across the country -150 opened in the past year - GM is actively encouraging its customers to use them. Tom Collina, director of 20/20 Vision, an environmental group, said the environment should benefit. Ethanol produces less air pollution and global warming gasses than petroleum.
