Democratic National Convention Vehicles will be beer powered!

Mixing beer with driving is usually not a good idea, but throw in a political convention and you may be on to something. In an effort to green the upcoming Democratic National Convention, the Democratic party has announced that the official DNC vehicles will use an ethanol-gasoline fuel blend made from waste beer! Denver-based Molson Coors Brewing Company will be filling the tanks of the 400 GM flex fuel vehicles in the DNC fleet which will transport officials, politicians, delegates, staff and media around Denver for the August 25th event.

The Molson Coors Brewing Company is donating fuel made mostly from their beer waste – beer which is spilled during packaging or not fit for consumption. It is not a new process for the brewery, in fact, they have been turning beer into fuel since 1996. When beer produced at the factory does not meet their requirements, it is sent to be distilled into 200 proof fuel-grade ethanol. It is then mixed with 15 percent ethanol and sold as E85, and it is this fuel which will power the fleet of GM flex-fuel vehicles that will be used at the convention.

+ Coors to donate beer-fuel to DNC gathering

4 Comments

jbella July 10, 2008 at 12:12 pm

They finaly found a good use for Coors! Yay!
malehrman July 8, 2008 at 11:51 pm

Great site, glad I happened upon it.

I will tip my hat to the folks at the DNC for this idea, it sounds like they are working hard to meet a variety of green standards in planning the convention (see http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/06/us/politics/06convention.html?_r=1&sq=convention&st=nyt&adxnnl=1&scp=1&adxnnlx=1215361770-sGKERD4PIupRTYmvtAcA3A&oref=slogin for some of the things they are planning).

In either case, the only unfortunate part of this is giving Coors the publicity, seeing as how Coors is one of the biggest funders of the Republican Party and conservative movement.
leafpure July 8, 2008 at 4:17 pm

This is so cool. I am happy that my fav blog mentions Obama!

Great news.
mls July 8, 2008 at 2:18 pm

200 proof is pure alcohol, 400 proof is impossible. E85 is 15% gasoline, not 15% ethanol.

Otherwise, an interesting story.