Even in Denver and the six-county metropolitan area that surrounds it, a certain unrestricted quality still exists. Here, where the population is reaching 2.5 million, sprawling suburbs, SUVs and traffic jams are as ubiquitous as “Save the Earth” bumper stickers, Kayak-laden Subarus and lunchtime packs of wiry cyclists. So it’s no surprise that the Mile High City is as proficient at consuming energy as it is supportive of utilizing new and renewable forms of it. The city’s pioneering use of E10 perfectly illustrates this assertion. While large-scale ethanol production is new to the state, Denver was the first metropolitan area in the United States to require its use. In 1988, Denver mandated oxygenated fuels for wintertime use to control carbon dioxide emissions. Now, as the area seems to be winning its longtime battle over air quality, it has removed itself from the U.S. EPA’s undesirable list of “Ozone Non-Attainment” zones—places where the concentration of air contaminates exceeds the standard allowed by the Clean Air Act of 1990. That now makes the fate of ethanol-blended gasoline uncertain in a city that showed America that E10 not only worked, but worked well. “Denver’s historic challenges have been met,” says Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, who adds the environmental challenges the city faced more than a decade ago led it to “experiment” with and eventually rely on alternative fuels. “It worked. People got comfortable with ethanol.”
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Indeed, Coloradoans have grown comfortable with all types of alternative energy. Ethanol helped break the ice. In November 2004, for example, the state became the first in the nation’s history to put a renewable energy portfolio directly before voters, rather than through a state legislature. The result: The initiative passed, albiet narrowly. It requires the state's largest utilities to obtain 3 percent of their electricity from renewable energy resources by 2007 and 10 percent by 2015, as well as establish a standard net metering system for homeowners and ranchers with small photovoltaic systems to connect to the power grid. The measure also calls for 4 percent of the mandated amount of renewable energy to come from solar resources. After the vote, many credited the passage of the bill to the state’s increasingly green-minded residents. “We have a culture that is directed at outdoor recreation,” says David Hiller, state issues council for the office of U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar. “We love our mountains, parks and forests.”
Hickenlooper agrees. “Often people have moved to Colorado as a lifestyle decision—not necessarily for a job or promotion—and those who make that decision support environmentally responsible products and interests, and are not afraid to try new things,” the mayor tells EPM. “They are also drawn to the idea of using domestic fuels and using Colorado crops.”
In-State Production Begins, Use Uncertain
Whether people living in the metro Denver area support ethanol enough to keep using E10 voluntarily is yet to be seen, but entrepreneurs in the state are placing big bets on the alternative fuel’s future. Sterling Ethanol, a 42 MMgy dry mill in Sterling, Colo., is the only current large-scale dry-mill ethanol plant on line in the state, beginning operations in 2005. But with two other ethanol plants under development in Evans and Windsor, Colorado (which will have started production by the time this issue goes to print) will be pushed from having virtually no ethanol production to being a true “ethanol state” by late 2006. “In a year, it is amazing how fast the state has moved,” Hiller says.
In fact, the national demand for ethanol has sparked a surge of interest in new production facilities in Logan, Morgan, Weld and Yuma Counties. So while in-state production of ethanol is on the rise in Colorado, some believe in-state use of E10 is on the precipice of a sharp decline. This has environmentalists and clean fuels advocates wondering what role ethanol played in helping remove the once-notorious brown cloud from Denver’s skyline. While a number of environmental regulations played a role in the city’s successful battle against smog, experts have a hard time attributing a specific percentage of credit to ethanol-blended gasoline. Supporters of ethanol, like Stacy Simms of the Denver Clean Cities Coalition, believe ethanol helped the city get where it is today. “I think [alternative fuels] have played a large role in complementing other programs,” Simms says. “For instance, we had one of the first city fleets to really look at going green.” Simms tells EPM the fleets that have used ethanol and biodiesel in Denver have helped blaze trails for those facilitating similar plans in other states. Also, she says the Clean Cities Coalition is eager to find out if a recent EPA assessment will show that alternative fuels—mainly E10—have helped Colorado achieve improved air quality.
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