Legislation Would Require Half of All Cars to be Flex Fuel by 2012

Press Release

LEGISLATION WOULD REQUIRE HALF OF ALL CARS TO BE FLEX FUEL BY 2012

A bipartisan team of legislators - consisting of Congressman Eliot Engel (D-NY), Congressmen Jack Kingston (R-GA), Steve Israel (D-NY), and Bob Inglis (R-SC) - introduced legislation Tuesday that would help break our addiction to foreign oil. Their Open Fuel Standards Act would require half of all cars made in America by 2012, and 80% by 2015, to be flexible fuel vehicles, able to run on gasoline or alcohol (including methanol or ethanol) or a combination of both.

Rep. Engel said, "Competition and consumer choice in the transportation fuel market would serve to end oil's monopoly in the transportation sector, strip oil of its strategic status, and protect consumers from price hikes at the pump."

Rep. Kingston said, "Hardworking Americans are sick and tired of inaction on solving our nation's energy crisis. This bill provides a vital stepping stone toward realizing America's energy independence in a bipartisan fashion. We've got the ability to produce American-made energy and with this, we'll provide the incentive to do just that."

"Flex fuel technology will finally allow our cars to move on from foreign oil," Rep. Israel said. "The technology to make us more energy independent is here, now we need to make sure consumers have access to it. Giving American drivers the opportunity to run their cars on alternative energy will create demand for new fuels and opportunities for businesses."

Rep. Inglis said, "Gasoline is expensive and of strategic importance because it's the indispensable fuel. If we make cars that can run other fuels, we can dramatically improve the national security of the United States by beginning to break free of oil."

The price of oil today requires that America take serious steps to end the oil monopoly. Alcohol fuels, including both ethanol and methanol, offer the potential for significant supplies of fuels that can be produced in the United States, and in other Western Hemisphere countries friendly to the United States;

By increasing the number of vehicles that can run on alcohol, this bill will play a major role in securing American energy independence. The technology already exists to build flex fuel vehicles at little or no additional cost. Flex fuel vehicles can use either conventional gasoline or alcohol fuels, or any combination of them.

The distribution system necessary for alcohol fuels will only develop if a substantial amount of American vehicles are equipped for using them. The establishment of such a vehicle fleet and distribution system would provide a large market that would mobilize private resources to substantially advance the technology and expand the production of alcohol fuels, both in the United States and abroad.

A flexible fuel vehicle is a vehicle able to run on E85 - a fuel blend of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline by volume, and M85 - a fuel blend of 85 percent methanol and 15 percent gasoline.

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