Hundreds of Millions of Car Owners Don't Know They're Already Driving A Flex Fuel Vehicle

Cleaner air, water, and independence from foreign oil is within our grasp

By Marc J. Rauch
Exec. Vice President/Co-Publisher
THE AUTO CHANNEL

AUTO CENTRAL - April 23, 2016: There's so much talk...so much hype... about getting our air and water cleaner, about eliminating health risks, about improving our economy, about becoming energy independent, about reducing terrorism. Yet there's very little really done about it.

Sure some Federal and state government agencies are spending huge financial resources on these issues, but they're just playing with themselves. And while they're playing with themselves, they're wasting our money.

Electric-powered vehicles, whether based on battery or fuel-cell or solar technology, are the future of personal automobiles - the distant future. But for now we need something that can address the issues until our grandchildren or great-grandchildren or great-great-grandchildren will see the electric age of automobiles.

There's only one solution available, and it's a solution that can be put into use immediately by hundreds of millions of vehicles on U.S. roads right now. Globally, there's probably over a billion vehicles that can make the switch instantaneously.

The solution is ethanol. Every single gasoline-powered vehicle on the road today is a flex fuel vehicle, regardless of whether they're labeled as flex fuel or not. Every one of these vehicles can safely and economically use ethanol-gasoline blends that are significantly higher than E10 (standard gasoline in the U.S.). These vehicles can be using E20, E25, E30, E40, E50 and higher. If our standard gasoline was E30 instead of E10 we would be able to do away with reliance on foreign petroleum oil. Imagine that, in just a few weeks America could be free from foreign oil enslavement.

The use of E10 over the past decade has helped to make dramatic improvements in the environment. Ramping up to higher level ethanol blends would greatly accelerate the process. You don't have to be or become a climate change alarmist to appreciate the importance of a cleaner environment, simply having clean air to breathe and beautiful vistas are things that everyone can be passionate about.

What is holding us back is the petroleum oil industry and the untold amounts of money that they give to politicians and media spokespeople to continue to support their poison. There are no legitimate reasons; no true technological reasons; no sensible economic reasons for not making the switch right now to higher ethanol blends. There are lies about ethanol; plenty of exaggerated statements against ethanol; enormous areas of ignorance concerning how ethanol works, but all of this can be deflated as easily as sticking a pin in a swollen balloon.

And we don't even need the Federal or state governments to give us the green light to make the change, although it would be very nice if they did. You can do this yourself; you can take things into your own hands. You can make a difference right now. Pull up to an E85 pump at a local filling station and try one gallon. Then the next time you fill up try two gallons of E85. Then try three gallons of E85 splash blended into the E10. You'll see that there is no difference in your vehicle's driving performance. The only difference you'll probably see is that you saved some money on each gallon of E85 that you purchased.

Whatever you're thing is: world security, health, economy, environment; you can do something that really counts. You can make the difference.