Ethanol is an American fuel produced by Americans providing much needed American jobs. I would rather give my
money to an American farmer than to some someone in the middle east that is not our friend. Second generation ethanol produced from cellulose, algae and waste at your local dump are moving into production and will soon be a bigger part of the mix. The military is on board and looking at biofuels as a way to reduce it’s fuel costs and secure it’s supply.

The recoverable oil in the world is not limitless. As it gets harder to find and produce the price will continue to go up.
As China and India with their billion plus populations acquire automobiles in greater numbers PEAK OIL theorists
expect demand for oil to increase faster than supply increasing the price for all.

The last time oil went to $147/barrel people were scrambling to get out of their trucks and SUV’s and were looking for small efficient foreign cars to drive. That was not good for GM since GM relied heavily on Truck and SUV’s for their sales.

If the price of oil goes back up to $147/barrel in the next few years it will be nice to have an alternative choice at the pump. Gas stations need to become fueling stations and offer gasoline, ethanol, diesel, biodiesel, CNG and electric charging stations. Consumers needs a choice at the pump. Putting all your economic eggs in the oil basket may not be a good bet. Oil has had a monopoly in transportation fuels for too long. Until now we have been blessed with cheap fuel. From all that I read the era of cheap fuel is coming to an end.

Our economic security and our national security demand that we diversify our energy sources so that the impact
of high fuel prices on our economy can be reduced.

Ethanol is an American fuel produced by Americans providing much needed American jobs. I would rather give my
money to an American farmer than to some someone in the middle east that is not our friend. Second generation ethanol produced from cellulose, algae and waste at your local dump are moving into production and will soon be a bigger part of the mix. The military is on board and looking at biofuels as a way to reduce it’s fuel costs and secure it’s supply.

The recoverable oil in the world is not limitless. As it gets harder to find and produce the price will continue to go up.
As China and India with their billion plus populations acquire automobiles in greater numbers PEAK OIL theorists
expect demand for oil to increase faster than supply increasing the price for all.

The last time oil went to $147/barrel people were scrambling to get out of their trucks and SUV’s and were looking for small efficient foreign cars to drive. That was not good for GM since GM relied heavily on Truck and SUV’s for their sales.

If the price of oil goes back up to $147/barrel in the next few years it will be nice to have an alternative choice at the pump. Gas stations need to become fueling stations and offer gasoline, ethanol, diesel, biodiesel, CNG and electric charging stations. Consumers needs a choice at the pump. Putting all your economic eggs in the oil basket may not be a good bet. Oil has had a monopoly in transportation fuels for too long. Until now we have been blessed with cheap fuel. From all that I read the era of cheap fuel is coming to an end.

Our economic security and our national security demand that we diversify our energy sources so that the impact
of high fuel prices on our economy can be reduced.

First – The reason GM makes flex-fuel vehicles is NOT because it is the best ‘near term’ alternative fuel. It is because they get a TAX CREDIT on EVERY ONE they make!! It doesn’t matter that most of them will NEVER see a drop of E85. As the article said, it costs them NOTHING to make them E85 compatible, the alcohol sensitive parts are already redesigned.

Second – As noted – DOUBLE CAFE! So a truck that gets CR@P MPG, makes their CAFE numbers look good due to a political gift.
And WHY do they do this? Running E85 does NOT increase the MPG, it drops it by about 30% overall. Thus you use 30% MORE fuel and stop for it 30% more often. The CAFE rating should be DROPPED not doubled.

The new GM lemon (the Volt) could make sense only if the country could begin building an atomic electrical energy infrastructure, sans Federal Government involvement, and interference. Doing so would result in clean, electrical energy that would be so cheap that we would consider it “free” compared to even present day gasoline prices. Of course, by then virtually every other auto manufacturer would have produced electric cars with capabilities far beyond what Government Motors would be capable of manufacturing.

Biofuels produce some 2 million barrels / day worldwide and this helps maintain the price of oil, without this the oil prices could shoot past 100$ / barrel.