Just Another Way Beer is Saving the World
According to the Environmental News Service, the flex-fuel vehicles to be used at the Democratic National Convention in Denver next month will be running on beer.
Yep, beer.
To be specific, waste beer from Coors brewing.
Molson Coors is donating enough clean-burning ethanol fuel for the fleet of 400 General Motors flex-fuel vehicles that will meet all of the convention’s transportation needs. Those using the fleet of beer-operated automobiles will include the U.S. House and Senate leadership, DNC officials, state party chairs, delegates, staff and members of the media.
Molson Coors CEO Leo Kiely commented “We are pleased that our waste beer can fuel the convention fleet and help support an environmentally conscious convention.” To go along with the fuel, Coors will also be providing the convention with beer.
The ethanol Coors is donating is not of the corn-based variety but made from waste beer generated at their brewery in Golden, Colorado which now produces three million gallons of this cleaner-burning fuel annually. As it turns out, Coors has been converting their beer waste to ethanol since 1996.
With 11 flex-fuel models for 2008 and more than 15 planned for 2009, GM has pledged that half of the vehicles they produce by 2012 will be flex-fuel capable. There are already two million flex-fuel vehicles on the road today.
Who knows, someday soon “stopping at the gas station for beer” might have a whole new meaning.
Less beer wasted and a cleaner planet? I’ll drink to that.
TAGS [ ETHANOL | BEER | COORS | MOLSON | BEER FUEL | FLEX FUEL ]
|
|
|
July 8th, 2008 at 7:28 am
Wow. With the amount of beer we produce and drink in the states, we could be looking at a really great resource for fuel. Kudos to Coors. Time for the rest of the big boys to step up.
July 18th, 2008 at 4:26 pm
Sounds good, but how much will ethanol cost per gallon?
July 21st, 2008 at 7:45 am
Good point, Roy. I would hope that, after coming up with as many viable sources of ethanol as possible, fuel costs would drop in the long run…. but that just may be wishful thinking on my part.