Environmental Leader

Molson Coors, which began converting waste beer to ethanol in 1996, produces about 3 million gallons of ethanol per year, will donate thousands of gallons of E85, an ethanol-gasoline fuel blend, worth an estimated $40,000 — to fuel the General Motors flex-fuel vehicles that will provide the transportation needs for the Denver 2008 Democratic Convention.

The 85-percent ethanol and 15-percent gasoline from Molson differs from the more common corn-based variety in that it is made from beer lost during packaging or rejected for quality reasons at the company’s brewery in Golden, Colo.

Molson is purchasing the ethanol from Merrick & Co., which, under a 15-year agreement crafted in 2005, leases land from Coors, buys the residuals from the brewer and makes the ethanol at a plant next to Coors brewery in Golden.

In December Coors said it plans to reduce its total greenhouse gas emissions by 12 percent by 2010.