Soon it will be possible to drive the 866 miles from Gary, Ind., to Mobile, in vehicles powered solely by biofuels.

Wednesday, Athens was officially designated one of five sites in Alabama with stations offering biofuels such as E85 (85 percent Ethanol, 15 percent gasoline) and B20 (20 percent biodiesel, 80 percent petroleum-based diesel).

The others adjacent to Interstate 65 are off exits 1 and 3, which are already open, Exit 69 that will open in December, and Exit 179 at Prattville.

Officials with the Alabama Clean Fuels Coalition and the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs Energy Division, as well as an Indiana official, joined to cut the ribbon at the site of the Athens station on U.S. 72 East.

The station, which according to distributor representative Don Evans of Ford’s Fuel of Point Clear, will be up and running by the end of December. The station is to be located just east of Burger King and across from Russell Stover on property owned by Dwight Billions and Allen Shaw.

Evans said that biodiesel is selling for about $2.86 in Mobile. He said a biodiesel plant being opened in Athens by Beverly and Melvin Kilgore on the old Knight Lumber site off Airport Road would become a part of a network of suppliers for biodiesel fuels to stations along the corridor.

Officials likened the importance of the opening of the corridor to modern transportation to the 1869 opening of the Transcontinental Railroad. They said it also shows the U.S. moving away from dependence on foreign oil.

State District 5 Sen. Parker Griffith, D-Huntsville, who was on hand for Wednesday’s ribbon cutting, called the implementation of domestically produced biodiesel fuels a “security issue.”

“It’s more than miles per gallon,” said Griffith. “It’s a national security issue. Over the next 120 months we hope to wean off foreign oil. It’s not only the cheapest, but it’s something that America needs to buy into as good for the whole country. We have to develop that mind set. It’s great for Alabama because it can be produced locally and feed our own economy.”

Mark Bentley, executive director of the Alabama Clean Fuels Coalition said that the move to biodiesel is about 30 years behind.

“What we didn’t do in the 1970s we are now doing in 2008 and beyond,” said Bentley. “This partnership is important to move things forward in the state. We couldn’t have done this without ADECA’s Energy Division.”

ADECA Executive Director Bill Johnson said, “We are glad to be able to partner with Auburn University in the development of biofuels. Some of the best research in the country is being done there. We have a 60-million-gallon-per-year capacity in Alabama. The link is getting this resource into use. This is where the rubber meets the road. We need to send the profits back to our farmers instead of Mideast countries, many of which don’t appreciate us.”

Eric Burch, communications director of the Indiana Office of Energy and Defense Development, said, “Bringing E85 and B20 pumps to drivers the entire length of I-65 not only promotes the use of cleaner fuels, but takes us closer to the goal of energy independence.”