General Motors today provided an E85-capable Chevrolet Tahoe to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources for use in the state as part of a campaign to promote ethanol and E85-capable vehicles in the state. GM presented the vehicle keys to Gov. Tom Vilsack at a press event at Four Mile Elementary School.

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources will showcase the E85-capable Chevrolet Tahoe in various ways and events throughout the year. There are currently 19 E85 fueling stations and 17 ethanol plants in the state. For more information, log on to www.iowacorn.org.

The announcement is part of a campaign by GM and the Governors’ Ethanol Coalition (GEC), a bipartisan group of governors devoted to the promotion and increased use of ethanol. This collaborative effort is designed to increase awareness of ethanol and flexible fuel vehicles, and to promote the increased use of E85 as a renewable, alternative transportation fuel that is able to meet the demands of today’s drivers.

GM has more than one million of these vehicles on the road today. In addition to Iowa, GM has provided E85-capable vehicles for use in Arizona, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Wisconsin and Wyoming. GM will also provide vehicles to the following states: Alabama, Colorado, Idaho, Kentucky, Michigan, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina and Texas.

Ethanol delivers similar performance as regular gasoline and is a renewable, domestically produced fuel that reduces sulfur and aromatic hydrocarbons for improved exhaust emissions performance. E85, a blend of 85 percent ethyl alcohol and 15 percent gasoline, is produced from the starch in agricultural products, primarily domestically produced corn. Growing corn actually removes CO2 from the atmosphere so that the total effect of using ethanol made from corn is a significant reduction in greenhouse emissions when compared to the use of petroleum-based fuels.

GM’s E85 vehicles are capable of operating on either gasoline or 85 percent ethanol without any additional modifications, aftermarket conversions, or cumbersome switches for vehicle users. Currently, there are almost 400 public E85 fueling sites in operation across the nation.