Thinking Outside of the Barrel

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Thinking Outside of the Barrel

by Anne Korin

Today's vehicles have an average lifespan of 17 years and, for the most part, can run only on petroleum. Every year, 17 million new cars roll onto America's roads. For a cost of less than $100 extra per car, automakers can make virtually any gasoline-powered car a flex fuel vehicle, capable of running on any combination of gasoline and a variety of alcohols such as ethanol and methanol, made from a variety of feed stocks including agricultural material, waste, and coal. Indeed, alcohol does not just mean ethanol, and ethanol does not just mean corn.

Flex fuel vehicles provide a platform on which fuels can compete and let consumers and the market choose the winning fuels and feed stocks based on economics. For example, China is rapidly expanding production of the alcohol fuel methanol from coal, and its vehicle industry is ramping up to fuel flexibility.

In Brazil, where ethanol is widely used, the share of flex fuel vehicles in new car sales is estimated to be 90 percent this year. These cars are manufactured by the same automakers that sell to the U.S. market and entail no size, power, or safety compromise by consumers. The proliferation of flex fuel vehicles in Brazil has driven fuel competition at the pump such that the Brazilian oil industry has been forced to keep gasoline prices sufficiently low to compete with ethanol in order not to lose more market share.

She concludes:

A nationwide deployment of flex-fuel cars, flex fuel plug-in hybrids, and alternative fuels could take place within two decades. But this transformation will not occur by itself. In a perfect world, government would not need to intervene in the energy market. In a time of war, however, Washington is taking a great risk in leaving the problem to be solved by the free markets alone.

Every year that passes without congressional action to ensure that new cars sold in America are flex fuel vehicles is another year in which 17 million gasoline-only cars start their 17-year life on U.S. roads, further shackling us to foreign oil.

On the grounds of national security and in the interest of stemming the hemorrhaging of our economy, Congress should take swift action to require that new vehicles sold in the United States are flex fuel vehicles. Legislating an Open Fuel Standard would level the playing field and promote free competition among diverse energy suppliers. Failure to do so will ensure that we continue to finance our enemies, and allow OPEC to tighten its stranglehold on the global economy.

Anne Korin is chair of the Set America Free Coalition and co-director of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security (IAGS).

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The message is not really new.
But the growing urgency is.

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