A bipartisan measure was introduced in the U.S. Senate on Tuesday that would require half of all new vehicles sold in the U.S. to have flex-fuel systems by 2012.
The Open Fuel Standard Act requires that starting in 2012, 50% of new
automobiles (and 80% by 2015), 80% be flex-fuel
vehicles, capable of operating on gasoline, ethanol and methanol, or biodiesel.
U.S. Senators Sam Brownback (R-KS), Ken Salazar (D-CO) and Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) introduced the bill.
Making a flex-fuel vehicle costs the manufacturer
about an additional one hundred dollars per vehicle.
Senator Lieberman said, "Solving our nation’s strategic
vulnerability and freeing American consumers from fuel price spikes
requires breaking the stranglehold that oil has on our transportation
sector. That is what this bill would do, by finally introducing real
fuel choice into the American vehicle market."
Over the past several years, Congress has enacted several policies that have expanded the production of biofuels. By 2022, these renewable fuels will constitute approximately one-fourth of America´s fuel supply.
However, without more flex fuel vehicles, E-85 pumps, and ethanol-dedicated pipelines, the full potential of renewable fuel is greatly limited, according to Senator John Thune (R-SD), who is a co-sponsor of the bill, along with Susan Collins (R-ME).
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