ACE's Market&nbsp;Development&nbsp;will be taking part in our first&nbsp;in-person&nbsp;petroleum marketer&nbsp;trade show&nbsp;in 16 months&nbsp;when we&nbsp;set up&nbsp;the booth&nbsp;at&nbsp;the Southwest&nbsp;Fuel&nbsp;and&nbsp;Convenience&nbsp;Expo in&nbsp;Fort Worth, Texas,&nbsp;June 6-8.&nbsp;Five other&nbsp;&ldquo;non-virtual&rdquo;&nbsp;trade shows&nbsp;are on the books for the remainder of 2021.
These conferences and tradeshows are important for us&nbsp;to&nbsp;share the latest information&nbsp;about storing and selling ethanol&nbsp;with fuel station owners and operators,&nbsp;but&nbsp;it&rsquo;s&nbsp;equally important&nbsp;to have the&nbsp;opportunity&nbsp;to&nbsp;talk with marketers and find&nbsp;out what they&rsquo;re thinking and hearing about ethanol, and&nbsp;what they need from us to help them become more comfortable&nbsp;making the change to higher ethanol blends.&nbsp;Some of the most valuable&nbsp;outcomes of participation in&nbsp;petroleum industry events come from conversations with people who just wanted to stop by to tell us&nbsp;how much we suck.&nbsp;&hellip;or more accurately, how much they think we suck &hellip;and why.&nbsp;
After 20 years and probably more than 250 petroleum marketer tradeshows and workshops, we&rsquo;re&nbsp;pretty&nbsp;comfortable with the idea that some marketers&nbsp;don&rsquo;t like ethanol.&nbsp;At least they don&rsquo;t think&nbsp;they like ethanol.&nbsp;After asking why they&nbsp;don&rsquo;t&nbsp;like it, most&nbsp;critics offer one&nbsp;or more&nbsp;of the traditional&nbsp;objections (subsidies, food vs. fuel,&nbsp;doesn&rsquo;t really reduce pollution,&nbsp;energy balance, high cost of the fuel or equipment needed to sell it), all of which are talking points hammered into their skulls&nbsp;with&nbsp;persistent oil industry&nbsp;misinformation campaigns, and ALL of which are provably very false.&nbsp;
That&rsquo;s&nbsp;why we&nbsp;like to talk to the haters&hellip;&nbsp; and even the&nbsp;dislikers&nbsp;&hellip;or the&nbsp;I&rsquo;m&nbsp;not too sure about you&nbsp;guys-ers&hellip;&nbsp;People who have an opinion&nbsp;and want you to know about it, care.&nbsp;They want you to know what they think because&nbsp;they want things to be better and they think you&nbsp;are&nbsp;making them worse.&nbsp;And because they care, when they are provided with&nbsp;true, verifiable information proving their previous opinions are wrong,&nbsp;and after&nbsp;they&rsquo;ve&nbsp;had&nbsp;a chance to verify the&nbsp;truth of new&nbsp;information they&rsquo;ve been given, those people often become vocal advocates for higher ethanol blends.&nbsp; &nbsp;
But the bottom line is always to bottom&nbsp;line.&nbsp;Most often&nbsp;ethanol&nbsp;haters become ethanol &ldquo;converts&rdquo; after finding out they can&nbsp;create a&nbsp;unique identity for their business and most importantly, gain customers&nbsp;and make&nbsp;more money by selling higher ethanol blends.&nbsp;&ldquo;The math&rdquo;&nbsp;favors higher octane ethanol blends nearly all the time, and there is no telling how much impact selling a cleaner fuel can make on some customers.&nbsp;&nbsp;
We try to address a lot of concerns in these columns&nbsp;and&nbsp;have other marketers address them&nbsp;on flexfuelforward.com,&nbsp;but we&nbsp;can&rsquo;t&nbsp;cover them all, and if you&rsquo;re running a convenience store or stores, you don&rsquo;t have time to&nbsp;search the web.&nbsp;So,&nbsp;if you&rsquo;re attending a trade show, stop by and tell us we suck. We&rsquo;ll explain why we don&rsquo;t, and at the very least, you&rsquo;ll probably walk away with a sweet koozie!&nbsp;&nbsp;
&nbsp;
&nbsp;

Ron Lamberty, senior vice president, American Coalition for Ethanol  

2021/06/LambertyNew_16227486718791_largethumb.jpg

2021/06/LambertyNew_16227486718791_thumb.jpg

2021/06/LambertyNew_16227486718791.jpg

ACE's Ron Lamberty discusses why his organization likes to hear from retailers who think they hate ethanol and stresses that many ethanol haters become vocal advoates for higher ethanol blends once they understand the fuel's many benefits. 

OPINION: Let us know why (you think) you don't like ethanol

Related Stories

Optimus Technologies launches Vector System for International S13 Platform

Minnesota Pollution Control Agency awards $75,000 SAF grant to U of M initiative

Aemetis India begins biodiesel shipments to OMCs under $31 million allocation

Valero reports difficult Q1 for renewable diesel, profitable quarter for ethanol

Mammoet makes HVO commitment to fuel its carbon reduction goals

Upcoming Events

North American SAF Conference & Expo

OPINION: Let us know why (you think) you don't like ethanol.css-7jxktu{position:absolute;bottom:0px;left:0px;right:0px;height:3px;border-radius:3px;background-color:var(--chakra-colors-brandBlack);}