Issue Navigation: Don’t Get Lost in the Propaganda

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The Clean Fuels Blog (an email about every two weeks) is free to FFV Club members and will keep you up to date on all of the issues that involve your FFV, ethanol, and using E85. Get connected, learn more, and voice your opinion!

The production of FFVs and ethanol and use of higher blends of ethanol like E85 in FFVs, are no longer technical hurdles or long-term research plans. These products have moved into the mainstream marketplace and are now the focal point of intense and continued debate over the use of public energy policies to ensure social responsibility and change a harmful status quo.

The issues all revolve around two questions:

Q. Should you the taxpayer (Government) invest in the development of alternative fuels and alternative fuel vehicle – in the absence of private industry investment?

A. Contrary to 30 years of research and warnings about oil dependence and risk of failing energy security to our economy, major oil companies have yet to produce any alternative motor fuels – and they have had access to the same tax incentives provided the 100+ ethanol plants that have been built during that same time period.

Q. Do you believe you will receive a direct or indirect a return on your tax dollar investment by spending your tax dollars on developing more domestic fuels and vehicles that are designed to use them?

A. Other examples of similar types of public policies include the development of atomic energy (Manhattan Project $35 billion), the rebuilding of international economies after World War II (Marshal Plan $95 billion), the space program (NASA $518 billion), national security (Department of Homeland Security $billions), Interstate highway system ($360 billion), medical research for cancer and aids ($billions), and defending oil supplies in the Middle East (Persian Gulf War I, Afghan and Iran wars nearly $1 trillion).

Making public policies, especially energy policy, is a delicate balancing act. Developing and protecting alternative fuel policies is like a Rubik Cube made up of costs and benefits and political compromise. However, this complicated puzzle has finally been solved and it will be up to you to retain the consumer protection polices that have been put in place that have created vehicle and fuel choice for the first time in 100 years. Why you?

FFVs

Chrysler, Ford, and General Motors have been making FFVs since the Alternative Motor Fuels Act of 1988 was passed by Congress and signed by the president. Automakers that volunteered to make FFVs were provided a credit against their corporate fuel economy standards in 1988. That policy was recently extended until 2015. It has worked. The automakers have answered the long time chicken or egg debate. That is, which should come first the alternative fuels or vehicles. There are seven million vehicles on the road today and about 1 million FFVs will be available in show rooms this year and more each year thereafter.

FFV Issues:

Should FFV makers continue to be provided incentives to make alternative fuel vehicles?
Should the responsibility to build E85 refueling infrastructure belong to the FFV makers or the gasoline producers?
If you were a gasoline retailer, which do you think should come first the alternative fuel vehicles or the alternative fuels?
Is the energy issue really all about miles per gallon (MPG), or should it focus on miles per gallon of what, or miles per gallon of carbon?

Ethanol

Ethanol has been the most scrutinized product ever. From a science standpoint, that debate is over too. Ethanol has been proven to reduce crude oil and gasoline imports, reduce the price of crude oil and gasoline, it makes 67% more energy than it uses, it takes low value domestic products and terms them into highly strategic commodities, it has increased and protected the amount of animal feed products, and it is either warranted and/or recommended by all the world’s auto makers. Game, set, match – the rest is a propaganda war and fight over the ½ trillion dollar U.S. motor fuel market. See FAQs.

Ethanol issues:

Should you, the government, continue to provide lower taxes for the production and use of ethanol, or increase the taxes on domestic fuels?
Critics of ethanol are labeling the federal fuel ethanol program a “food for fuel program” although any high school student doing research would know ethanol is made from feed corn, not human corn. Do you think the U.S. farmers and entrepreneurs can make food for human consumption, food for animals, and fuel for vehicles?
Do you think investing in feed-corn ethanol technology will lead to more advanced biofuels like cellulosic ethanol production technology?
Were is cellulosic ethanol technology and when will we see it in the marketplace?
What is more valuable ethanol or gasoline?
How valuable is energy security?
How valuable is national security?
How valuable is your job?
What is the economic stimulation proved by ethanol production?
Are all alternative energy sources equally important, or does crude oil and gasoline savings deserve more attention than solar, wind or geothermal sources?

E85

Automakers have been making FFVs for fleet and private use for over 20 years. The use of E85 in FFVs is warranted by the automakers in all regions of the country. Automakers are now actively investing in new cellulosic ethanol production technologies and helping to develop the refueling infrastructure for selling E85. There are 270,000 gasoline refueling stations and only 1,600 E85 stations – but that is a huge accomplishment in the face of a very competitive and restrictive market. The demand from FFV owners will have to come first, before gasoline retailers will invest in new storage tanks and dispensers for E85.

E85 issues:

Should gasoline retailers be required to sell E85 at all of their stations?
Should FFV owners get a direct tax break for buying E85 and supporting economic, environmental, and energy security?
Should FFV owners get greenhouse gas credits for reducing emissions?