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WINSTON-SALEM — General Motors and clean-fuel advocates came to town Tuesday seeking dealers to sell E85, the blend of ethanol that supporters call the fastest way to boost America's energy independence.

Would you actually use ethanol in your car, if you could? Join the discussion at the Debatables blog.

But they got an earful from fuel-industry professionals about state government's red tape and backward attitudes toward converting traditional fossil-fuel stations to ethanol.

Restrictive rules on underground tanks and the equipment used to pump E85 make it hard for retailers to invest in the unproven market of alternative fuels, said Wayne Henderson of Pump and Tank Shop of Greensboro.

If the state really wants to promote fuels, officials need to make it easier for service stations to retrofit existing equipment for E85, Henderson said.

"If we could get the state to allow a waiver that would let people start out with (retrofits), then you would see more people willing to take a chance on it," said Henderson, whose company supplies and repairs fuel pumps.

But good news did emerge from the seminar at state government's regional environmental headquarters: Greensboro should have a station selling E85 by next summer, erasing the Triad's dubious distinction as the state's largest metropolitan area without one.

"I'm pretty excited about it," said Steve Walk of CleanFUEL Distribution, a company that helps set up and supply stores that sell E85. "We'll start construction in February or March and be open by June or July, if not sooner,"

Walk said he did not want to disclose more details about the project but described the Triad as potentially a "hot market."

General Motors and Walk's company sponsored the program along with the N.C. Solar Center, a promoter of clean transportation affiliated with N.C. State. It was the first of three this week in North Carolina.

E85 is a blend of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline that burns cleaner than traditional fuel. These days, it is made mostly from corn, but other sources are on the horizon that aren't food crops.

Even advocates say the nation may develop other technologies and fuels someday to either displace ethanol or coexist with it. So it isn't the final word on moving away from petroleum.

But speakers at Tuesday's forum said that marketed properly, it should sell for at least 40 cents less per gallon than traditional gasoline.

It has the distinct advantage of being usable in engines that also can use gasoline or any percentage of gas and ethanol up to E85.

Cars and trucks with that flexibility are known as "flex fuel" vehicles and General Motors is ramping up their production big time.

"In terms of something that can offset oil in a more immediate way, E85 has the potential to do it now," said Alan Adler, a former Greensboro resident who is now a GM product safety spokesman.

Skeptics question whether ethanol is an efficient fuel, saying it takes more resources to make than the energy it ultimately provides. But speakers at Tuesday's seminar said subsequent research has refuted that claim.

North Carolina currently has 14 stations that market E85, but the closest to the Triad are in Durham, Southern Pines and Statesville. Five more are scheduled in the coming months, including Greensboro's.

One attendee at the seminar said he sells new cars in the Triad, but felt foolish talking up flex-fuel cars when buyers have no place to get E85. Jim Hensley of Marion said his company has installed specialized equipment at more than half the state's existing E85 stations, but he isn't sure it's a growth industry.

"There is no incentive to do it right now," he said of adding an E85 pump. "It's all crazy. It's just a lot of red tape."

Contact Taft Wireback at 373-7100 or twireback@news-record.com