(NAFB) – Ag officials from Nebraska and two other states have decided to invest more money into the ethanol-based fuel market in California.

The Journal Star says the Nebraska Corn Board and corn checkoff groups in Missouri and Kansas will provide California with $1.25 million over the next 12 months to help increase the availability of gasoline with an 85 percent ethanol blend, commercially known as E85. Pearson Fuels will supply the fuel. California’s largest E85 distributor, Pearson has almost 250 retail locations around the state. This is the Nebraska Corn Board’s second investment in E85 in California. Earlier this year, the Nebraska organization provided two grants to Pearson to help pay for E85 gas pumps at two gas stations in the Los Angeles area.

“These stations are moving a tremendous volume of E85,” says John Greer of the Nebraska Corn Board. “One station alone will use about 50,000 bushels of corn in the form of ethanol. The investment is already proving worthwhile for our growers.”

California is the largest E85 market in the country and should reach 50 million gallons this year. Despite that, it has fewer E85 stations than either Iowa or Minnesota, which combined have less than one-fourth of California’s population.