General Motors and Coskata: Trash to Run My Car?

General Motors announced at its Detroit Auto Show that it has partnered with a start-up company named Coskata Inc. The start-up says that it can turn our every day waste into fuel, even tires using secret bacteria. Not only are they claiming to be able to be able to turn our waste into bio-fuel, they say that the fuel will cost less than a dollar per gallon to make.

General Motors already has the E85 capable vehicles. E85 is a mixture of 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline. Presently corn is the main product being used, but as a long term fix corn cannot be expected to run our cars and trucks. Right now E85 is being sold at a limited number of stations around the United States, mostly in the Midwest and it is not cheap. It takes more to run your car than gasoline as well.

According to an article published by USA Today, Coskata is claiming that their new process would "erase the cost disadvantage." The same article says that they could be making mass quantities of the fuel by 2010.

The GM website shows that there are many cars, trucks and vans capable of running on bio-fuel. The 2008 vehicles already in production are the ¾-ton Chevy Suburban, Chevy Suburban ½-ton, Chevy Tahoe, GMC Yukon, GMC Yukon XL ½-ton, GMC Yukon XL ¾-ton, Chevy Avalanche, Chevy Impala, GMC Savana Cargo 1500, GMC Savana Passenger 1500, GMC Sierra 1500, Chevy Silverado 1500, Chevy Uplander, Chevy Express Cargo 1500 and the Pontiac Montana SV6.

Having these ethanol-running vehicles does give General Motors the early advantage over the other car companies if GM and Coskata can get their plan up and running. But, the other big car companies have their own flex-fuel vehicles as well. The big question for many people is; are these vehicles going to be affordable for the every day consumer? The price of fuel will go down tremendously, but what about the cost of the car? Are the prices going to be outside the realm of what middle to lower class people can afford?

These companies not only have the task of perfecting the fuel, but also finding or building outlets to sell the new fuel. It is no secret that if GM and Coskata succeed in this venture, they will be taking a bite out of the big oil company's profits, we aren't talking crumbs here.

So far, on the surface everything sounds great; cheap fuel, shrinking landfills and less dependence on oil. I am all for "going green" but will I have enough "green" money that is, to actually buy a fuel efficient car?