Aim of $25 million donation: Reducing nation's oil dependence

ST. LOUIS -- The family that founded Enterprise Rent-a-Car is donating $25 million for scientific research aimed at reducing U.S. dependence on oil and curbing emissions that cause global warming.

The money from Jack and Susan Taylor will establish the Enterprise Rent-A-Car Institute for Renewable Fuels and pay 30 scientists to research making plant-based fuel that is less polluting than gasoline. A dozen more scientists will be hired over three years.

The institute will be based at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center in suburban St. Louis.

The St. Louis region is trying to become a national center in bioenergy research, say business leaders and state officials.

The institute "will help us along the way as we try to attract other assets, such as [federal] renewable energy labs," said Mike Mills, the state's deputy director of economic development.

St. Louis and other regions are competing for funding and projects in renewable fuels, prompted by increasing awareness of global warming and the need to gain energy independence.

The Taylors' $25 million endowment is on top of $10 million they gave to the Plant Science Center in 2005.

Andrew Taylor acknowledged that critics might see the $25 million endowment as an expense of corporate reconciliation from the world's largest buyer of vehicles.

Enterprise's international fleet comes in at just under 900,000 vehicles. In October 2006, the company said it will donate $50 million to plant 50 million trees over the next 50 years, in a partnership with the National Arbor Day Foundation.

"This is not spin. This is absolutely something we need to do for our business," Taylor said.

Enterprise's fleet includes 30,000 flexible-fuel vehicles that can run on fuel that is 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline. However, the vehicles are grouped mainly in areas of Iowa and Minnesota that have a large number of fueling stations that offer E85 fuel.

The popularity of hybrids, which run on both gasoline and electricity, among consumers has limited Enterprise's ability to buy the vehicles for its fleet.