The Problem with "Alternative Fuel"

As we enter the annual summer driving season, the prospect of $3/gallon gasoline looms once again. As the price of fuel increases, so does the amount of rhetoric from Washington regarding the next generation of automobiles, popularly referred to as "alternative fuel vehicles." This is a very general term to describe vehicles which, essentially, will run on some sort of fuel other than fossil-based petroleum.

There are two basic sub-categories of alternative fuel vehicles. The first group is cars and trucks that will still rely on combustion to generate energy (just as our gasoline-powered cars do now), but will burn a fuel that is not petroleum-based. An example would be the new "flex-fuel" vehicles being marketed by General Motors, Ford, and others, which burn ethanol instead of gasoline. These vehicles are already entering the marketplace, and their popularity will likely continue to grow as consumers look for alternatives to increasingly expensive gasoline.

The second group of vehicles are still in the development stage, and have not yet been marketed to the general public. These are the hydrogen-powered vehicles. Essentially, these vehicles will use hydrogen and fuel-cell technology to generate electric current, which will be used to move the vehicle.

One of the primary advantages of these new vehicles, is that, supposedly, they will have less environmental impact than our nation's current fleet of vehicles, which produce massive amounts of sulfur dioxide, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, and other various nasty gasses which human lungs are not intended to inhale.

There are drawbacks to both types of vehicles, however. With ethanol-type fuels, you are still creating combustion, which still releases dangerous gasses into the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide, is, as we've all seen repeatedly on the evening news, a "greenhouse gas," which contributes to global warming by trapping solar energy near the earth's surface. While ethanol-powered vehicles will certainly produce a lower volume of CO2 than gasoline-powered cars, the amount will still be fairly substantial. Ethanol proponents will tell you that their vehicles are "cleaner," but they're comparing them to gasoline vehicles, which aren't exactly known for being environmentally friendly. It's hard NOT to be cleaner than gasoline.

The second vehicle type, hydrogen-powered cars, has a more substantial drawback, which could have dire economic consequences. Scientific research suggests that the only by-product from these vehicles would be plain, ordinary, safe water. This, of course, thrills environmentalists, because if these vehicles replace gasoline-powered cars or even ethanol-fueled vehicles, there would be far less carbon dioxide in our air, and thus, less threat of global warming from the greenhouse effect.

The problem is that water vapor, the gaseous form of water, is also a greenhouse gas, and, in fact, it is a far more powerful greenhouse gas than CO2. This means that, essentially, we would be replacing one dangerous greenhouse gas with the same or greater amounts of a more powerful one. It doesn't take a climatologist to see that this would aggravate the effects of global warming upon our planet.

For example, let's say that a gasoline-powered car releases 10 pounds of CO2 a year, and a hydrogen powered vehicle produces only 5 pounds of water per year. Water vapor is nearly 4 times as effective at trapping heat than CO2. Thus, even with less water being produced, the threat of global warming actually DOUBLES with a hydrogen-powered car.

So what is the solution? At least in the short term, ethanol seems to be the way to go. It is inexpensive, relatively easy to produce, and, most importantly, ethanol-powered vehicles have already moved out of the development phase and are being actively marketed to the general public. Any new car dealer in the US can sell you an ethanol-powered vehicle, or at least put you on the waiting list to order one, due to their popularity. But in the long run, as environmental concerns begin to take precedence over price, ethanol may have to eventually be phased out.

So, it appears that, for now, there is no perfect solution to the gasoline problem in this country.