Ethanol Flex Fuel or All Electric Cars? - An Option to the Realities of the Federal Ethanol Fuel Program

The numbers are mind boggling, Americans burn 400 million gallons of gasoline everyday in 243 million cars or over 140 billion gallons a year. No wonder we are finally looking for alternatives to this unsustainable oil consumption.

One alternative the White House is pushing is ethanol. President Bush on March 27, 2007 said "by 2012, 50% of the automobiles in America will be flex-fuel vehicles," which can burn ethanol or gasoline or a blend of both. U.S. Department of Agriculture projects farmers to plant 90.5 million acres of corn in 2007, the most in over 60 years toward the ethanol effort.

However there are dark clouds over the horizon. Cornell University scientist Roger Segelken states, "(there is) a fundamental input-yield problem. It takes more energy to make ethanol from grain than the combustion of ethanol produces." According to Cornell's David Pimentel, "That helps explain why fossil fuels, not ethanol, are used to produce ethanol...The growers and processors can't afford to burn ethanol to make ethanol. U.S. drivers couldn't afford it, either, if it weren't for government subsidies to artificially lower the price."

These glaring problems are just the tip of the iceberg. Many are beginning to ask why there is no serious effort towards making electric cars available. Instead of growing and processing billions of tons of corn to make fuel at taxpayer's expense, how about providing cars that simply plug into the grid for power.

Proven technology has been in place for over a decade and can only be better now. A good example is the ZAP-X Crossover Electric Car from Lotus Engineering slated to be introduced to the American market in 2008. The car has zero emissions, all wheel drive and a range of 350 miles before requiring a plug-in charge that takes 10 minutes. To top it off, the car has 644 horsepower and is capable of speeds over 150 mph. With a price tag of over $60,000, comparatively a bargain, the amazing car is obviously not for the average person. America calls for a visionary, a Henry Ford of electric cars.