Tag: flex-fuel

Ethanol Production Falling Short

Domestic automakers have been advertising their flex-fuel vehicles as an answer to independence from foreign oil. That’s because they burn a mix of gasoline and domestically-produced ethanol. But ethanol production has been inefficient. Lester Graham reports:

Transcript

Domestic automakers have been advertising their flex-fuel vehicles as an answer to independence from foreign oil. That’s because they burn a mix of gasoline and domestically produced ethanol. But ethanol production has been inefficient. Lester Graham reports:


Ford Motor Company chairman Bill Ford, Junior says his company increased flex-fuel vehicles on assurances there would be a better source for ethanol.


“It has been mostly corn-based and we knew, we do know that long-term that’s not the answer.”


The hope was breakthroughs to mass produce cellulosic ethanol made from woody plants or waste wood chips were coming quickly. That didn’t happen.


“But, I’ll say this: if we don’t end up with cellulosic ethanol, we’re going to hit the wall pretty quickly in terms of vehicle penetration on ethanol.”


Ford says automakers are looking to fuel providers to find an energy answer that makes sense for mass production. In the meantime his company plans to make lighter vehicles with smaller, but powerful fuel-efficient engines that burn gasoline.


For the Environment Report, this is Lester Graham.

Related Links

Gao: Biofuel Distribution Problems

  • The GAO found distribution of biofuels is an obstacle to its wider use. (Photo by Lester Graham)

The federal government has no comprehensive plan to deal with an expected
increase in the production of biofuels. That’s according to a new study from
the Government Accountability Office. Dustin Dwyer reports that the lack of
a plan has some real consequences:

Transcript

The federal government has no comprehensive plan to deal with an expected
increase in the production of biofuels. That’s according to a new study from
the Government Accountability Office. Dustin Dwyer reports that the lack of
a plan has some real consequences:


Mark Gaffigan studies energy issues for the GAO. He says there are real problems
getting biofuel capable vehicles where they need to be. For example, when officials at the Post Office tried to buy these so-called flex-fuel vehicles, the only options available were trucks with a larger engine than it needed. On top of that, officials had trouble getting biofuel, so they just ran the vehicles on gasoline.


“So, in effect, what you had was the government with vehicles using more fuel, using
more oil because they weren’t as efficient, when the intent was to try to encourage people
to use flex-fuel vehicles and use some of this ethanol to displace oil.”


The GAO says the Secretary of Energy needs to develop a new strategy that considers
both the production and distribution of biofuels.


For the Environment Report, I’m Dustin Dwyer.

Related Links