(Published Wednesday, January 3, 2007 11:11:46 AM CST)
A d v e r t i s e m e n t
By Jim Leute Gazette staff
The lights have dimmed and the cameras have stopped rolling.
All that's left is the action, and that will happen Saturday when Janesville's General Motors plant plays a role in an upcoming episode of "Discover Wisconsin."
The show, titled "Living Green with E85," will air statewide on three stations available in Janesville.
The episode focuses on E85 fuel, which is a byproduct of corn.
Stephanie Klett, host of "Discover Wisconsin," said the Janesville GM plant is a national leader in producing flexible-fuel vehicles that can burn the grain-based ethanol.
"Discover Wisconsin" crews were here in November and December to film at the plant, which produces full-size sport utility vehicles including Chevy Suburbans and Tahoes and GMC Yukon XLs, Yukons and Denalis.
Last year, GM built more than 400,000 flex-fuel vehicles, with about half coming from the Janesville plant. The flex-fuel vehicles burn E85 fuel, which is 85 percent ethanol.
While burning E85 may result in a slight decrease in fuel efficiency, benefits include a lower price-per-gallon, a cleaner-burning fuel and a reduction in dependency on expensive foreign oil, GM officials said in a news release.
"From the full-size utility standpoint, you can offset more imported oil than a small hybrid car can and still do the things that people in Wisconsin like to do: pull their boats, their campers and wave runners," said Rich Gunther, GM's fleet account executive.
The ethanol option also adds new dimensions to Wisconsin's economy, such as producing new markets for the state's farmers, Klett said.
"On average, Wisconsin farmers produce 148 bushels of corn per acre," she said. "If each bushel creates 2.8 gallons of ethanol, that's 414 gallons of ethanol produced per acre of corn."
Klett said plans are under way in a number of communities for ethanol plants that will create jobs and new opportunities for Wisconsin workers.
Four years ago, Wisconsin produced no ethanol; today, the state turns out more than 100 million gallons a year, she said.
Klett said the show starts with the agricultural angle before moving to production at the Janesville plant.
This topic-based episode of "Discover Wisconsin" is somewhat of a departure from the show's regular format, which focuses on tourism and destinations in the state.
"We've done it before, and we got a favorable response from our viewers," Klett said. "We think this show will be of interest because our viewers tend to have strong interests in the environment."
More info
The "Discover Wisconsin" episode "Living Green with E85" will air statewide Saturday.
Locally, the show can be seen at 10 a.m. on Fox Sports North (Charter cable channel 29), and at 6:30 p.m. on WKOW Channel 27-Madison (Charter cable channel 7) and WIFR Channel 23-Rockford (Charter cable channel 10).
