About half of the new trucks on the Lawrence Hall Chevrolet lot can run on one type ethanol fuel, and almost every vehicle on the road today can run on E10, another kind of ethanol.

The problem is the nearest ethanol pumps are in Dallas, about 175 miles away.

Ethanol fuel is a gasoline alternative produced by the fermentation of a sugar solution usually derived from the starches in corn kernels in the United States and from sugar cane in other countries.

There are two kinds of ethanol blended fuels in the market -- E10 and E85. The E10 fuel is the most common available and is composed of 10 percent ethanol and 90 percent unleaded gasoline. The E85 fuel is used in flexible fuel vehicles and is composed of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent unleaded gasoline, according to ethanolgasoline.org.

The 7-Eleven convenience stores in the Abilene area, which are owned by Alon USA, do not carry E85 ethanol fuel and don't plan to because it doesn't make money, according to Jeff Morris, Alon USA's president and CEO.

"We carry E10 at a few locations in El Paso and a few in Dallas but will not look to expand the market at all," he said.

Morris said he doesn't "really believe ethanol is a viable option for several reasons, but I have a responsibility to Alon shareholders, and if ethanol made money, I would be selling it. It's not, so we are not providing it."

Despite the lack of ethanol availability, many new vehicles from GM, Ford, Dodge and Chrysler already come with a flex-fuel option that allows them to run on either gasoline or an ethanol fuel.

Gary Grubbs, media director at Lawrence Hall Chevrolet, said they already have a large number of flex-fuel vehicles the lot.

"About 50 percent of our truck inventory and several of our cars are now flex-fuel, and I would expect the number of the vehicles to continue to expand as production increases," he said.

However, Grubbs said, most customers do not come in seeking the flex-fuel option; it just happens to be available on the model they are interested in.

"It doesn't appear to be a deciding factor for most of our customers," he said. "I think most people have little understanding of what E85 is; it's just a sort of bonus option."

Jim Alexander, manager of Arrow Chrysler-Jeep, agrees.

"We haven't had one person coming in specifically looking for flex-fuel vehicles," he said. "Right now, they are just looking for a vehicle with the best gas mileage available."

Alexander said they have only a small number of flex-fuel vehicles in their inventory.

The lack of interest and knowledge is most likely explained by the lack of availability. Locating gas stations that carry either E10 or E85 is a major problem across the state and the nation, except for Midwest states where corn is produced.

"I just don't see the flex-fuel cars or trucks being a big issue here since we can't get the ethanol here," said Seaton Higginbotham, general manager with Arrow Dealerships.

He also said he is concerned about the effect the ethanol will have on food crops.

In Texas, Kroger grocery stores are the largest ethanol provider, selling the E85 fuel at 18 stores across the state (the nearest Kroger is in Brownwood and does not sell fuel). H-E-B recently began selling the ethanol fuel at five of their locales: Waco, Killeen, Austin, Schertz and Buda.

Morris said ethanol makes no sense from energy, economical or environmental standpoints when produced from corn starch as it is in the United States.

"From an energy perspective, it doesn't make sense," he said. "It uses the same amount of energy that is required to make it -- an even-energy balance exchange. And environmentally, it would be better to produce it from sugar cane -- which our corn producers do not want."

Economically, Morris said, the price of ethanol at the pumps will soon be problem.

Ethanol is currently subsidized 51 cents from tax dollars, which is keeping prices down, he said. "This amount is scheduled to be lowered to about 45 cents later in this year and eventually stopped, which will push prices up at the pumps," he said.

The average price of a gallon of E85 fuel in Texas is $3.20, according to e85prices.com. The state average for a gallon of regular gasoline is $3.683, according to the AAA's Web site.