Kum & Go, honored by Iowa for ethanol marketing, opposes a state senator

Kum & Go, recently honored by the Iowa Secretary of Agriculture for its ethanol marketing, reportedly takes a dim view of a state senator’s proposal to remove ethanol identification stickers from fuel dispensers at stations through the state.

Sen. Jack Kibbie of the Iowa Senate said he believed if ethanol identification stickers were removed from dispensers, motorists would buy more of the corn-based fuel, according to a Feb. 15 article by Perry Beeman and Molly Hottle in The Des Moines Register.

Kibbie said legislation he has introduced that would allow gas stations to remove the labels would apply only to E10, according to the article. E85, biodiesel and other renewable fuels would still have to be labeled on the pump. But a spokesman for Kum & Go said the chain would leave the stickers on, even if the bill passes and is signed into law, according to The Register article, because it believes customers want to know the ethanol content of the fuel.

Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey on Feb. 6 announced that Kum & Go of West Des Moines and Cobb Oil Co. of Brighton are the first two winners of the Secretary’s Ethanol and Biodiesel Marketing Awards. The awards were created by the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship to recognize fuel marketers that have gone above and beyond in their efforts to sell renewable fuels. 

“Distributors and retailers are the connection between the Iowa renewable fuels industry and the customer,” Northey said.  “Both Kum & Go and Cobb Oil Company have gone to great lengths to promote both ethanol and biodiesel, and these awards are an opportunity to recognize them for their efforts.” 

The Secretary’s Ethanol and Biodiesel Marketing Awards were designed to recognize businesses that market the renewable fuels they have available through creative efforts including, but not limited to: hosting special events highlighting their renewable fuels, development of creative signage, initiation of new advertisements or marketing efforts, and dramatically increase pump availability.

The winners were recognized during the Petroleum Marketers & Convenience Stores of Iowa Annual Meeting in Des Moines on Feb. 6.  The Petroleum Marketers and Convenience Stores of Iowa (PMCI) is a non-profit state trade association serving the needs of independent petroleum marketers and convenience store owners throughout the state of Iowa. 

Here is what the Secretary had to say about the winners:

“Kyle Krause of Kum & Go is the winner of the 2008 Secretary’s Ethanol Marketing Award.  As president and CEO of Kum & Go, Kyle Krause has made his family-owned company a cutting-edge innovator in the delivery of alternative fuel choices.  Kum & Go was one of the first convenient store chains in the nation to offer a 10-percent ethanol blend and since 1997 Kum & Go has offered E-85, a fuel mixture of about 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline.  

“Kum & Go’s total reduction of fossil fuel dependency was more than 18 million gallons from ethanol in 2007. The company currently offers 25 E85 fueling sites nationwide, including 15 in Iowa, which is the most of any company.  And those numbers continue to grow, with two new Kum & Go E85 locations scheduled to open in the next two weeks. 

“Besides offering ethanol and E85 at its stores, under Krause’s leadership Kum & Go has gone to great lengths to raise awareness of the benefits of renewable fuels.  Last summer Kum & Go gave away three FlexFuel Chevy Impalas that can run on E85, more than $20,000 in ethanol gas and $15,000 worth of stock in VeraSun Energy, one of the largest producers of ethanol in the United States. 

“Mark and Laurie Cobb of Cobb Oil Company are the winners of the 2008 Secretary’s Biodiesel Marketing Award.  Cobb Oil currently offers biodiesel blends at four of their retail outlets and, as a result, has sold several million gallons of bio-blended diesel in the past 18 months.  Also, by competitively pricing the bulk biodiesel, they have effectively encouraged its use by their farm customers. 

“Mark Cobb is also currently the board Vice Chairman of Iowa Renewable Energy, a 30 million gallon per year biodiesel plan in Washington, IA.  In addition, he is serving as the company representative on the Iowa Biodiesel Board. 

“Besides selling biodiesel, Cobb Oil uses it extensively.  Every fuel truck that Cobb Oil has uses biodiesel.  They have also utilized funds from the Iowa Department of Economic Development to help their associate dealers and distributors market and promote biodiesel by installing a heated storage tank and using an insulated fuel trailer.”

According to the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association, Iowa has 28 ethanol refineries with the capacity to produce over 2 billion gallons annually, the Secretary noted in his announcement of the awards. Iowa only uses approximately 1.6 billion gallons of gasoline annually, which makes the state a net exporter of gasoline product, without pumping a single gallon of oil from the ground. 

In addition, Iowa has 16 biodiesel refineries with a combined annual capacity of over 350 million gallons either in operation or under construction.