Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Gasoline is an "alternative fuel"????



Rosa DeLauro has submitted a bill that would allow gasoline-electric hybrid vehicles to qualify as "alternative fuel vehicles". This would allow states to meet federally mandated fleet requirements by purchasing hybrids instead of CNG or flex-fuel vehicles. She points out that drivers of "flex-fuel" vehicles only choose to fuel up with ethanol about 3 percent of the time, using gasoline the rest of the time.

Though I recognize the dilemma here, this proposal clearly offers no solution. Hybrids run on gasoline, which cannot considered an "alternative" by any stretch of the imagination. If we include hybrids then why not turbo-diesels, which can provide higher fuel economy than some hybrids?

The fleet requirements are not intended to address simple fuel economy, they are intended to create a market and infrastructure for use of alternative fuels. If the government wants to promote alternatives, it is not going change much by simply re-labeling gasoline as an alternative fuel. A more sensible solution would be to bring more ethanol and biodiesel fueling pumps into the state.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

But hybrid technology paves the way for plug-in hybrid technology which paves the way for all-electric vehicles. In contrast, the current "duel-fuel" thing right now is just a scam, it does nothing at all.

CT Energy said...

Still, hybrids run on gasoline, which is not an alternative to gasoline no matter how much more efficient the vehicle might (or might not) be.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

But hybrid technology paves the way for plug-in hybrid technology which paves the way for all-electric vehicles.increase miles per gallon, fuel saver, increase gas mileageStill, hybrids run on gasoline, which is not an alternative to gasoline no matter

 
All images © 2007-2018 Bruce Crowder