Ethanol seminar in Växjö Sweden

The 7th february 2005 there was a seminar in Växjö (in the south of Sweden) about Bio-ethanol as an alternative fuel that I and my friend Jim Werngren attended. Amongst others the Swedish minister of environment (Lena Sommestad) participated and the seminar got quite some media exposure here in Sweden

Skreendump from swedish tv-news "rapport".
Jim and Aryan (red circle) listen to the minister of environment.

The minister explained what the swedish government does in order to promote alternative fuels and Clean Vehicles (CV's), this was obviously no news to us:

The Bio-Ethanol part in E85 as well as bio-gas are taxfree exept for VAT.
CV "company cars" (that your employer pays) have 6-8000 SEK less in added income tax compaired to normal comapny cars.
Many cities let CV's park for free
Stockholm city soon will have toll fees on the inner city, CV's will be toll free

The largest news on the conference was that the Swedish Road Administration (SRA) probably will recommend the minister to allow for existing petrol cars to be converted to ethanol legally.

Skreen dump from swedish tv-news "rapport".
I felt a bit sorry for SAAB, Ford and Toyota that we stole the attention from their shining new CV cars (a SAAB 9-5 FFV, Ford Focus FFV and Toyota Prius) parked in front of the entrance. Although the 500 km's swedish winter roads to the seminar left its traces and I only had done a quick wash up of the decals with the text "etanolbil" (ethanol car), Jim's "illegal" ethanol BX caught the TV-teams attention :-). But this conference was about converting cars not new CV cars...

Here are the tv clips, you need a recent version of QuickTime to play the MP4 video files
"Rapport", Swedish TV-news about the ethanol conference 1,2 MB QuickTime MP4

"24 konsument" Swedish consumer program about the ethanol conference 3,3 MB QuickTime MP4

rectification in "Rapport" of the false information that the exhaust fumes from ethanol cars should cause cancer after a complaint that I made to the Swedish Broadcasting Commission 1,1 MB QuickTime MP4

Swedish Broadcasting Commission decision as PDF
press release Swedish Broadcasting Commission