Is that a FLEX-FUEL you're driving?

Imagine a car that runs on clean-burning fuel, can easily be built in existing plants and costs about the same as what’s on the market now.

You may already have one.

While most of the attention on so-called “green” cars has been focused on gas-electric hybrids and futuristic hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles, American automakers have been producing and selling the most viable type for several years – flex-fuel vehicles.

Flex-fuel cars and light trucks are capable of running on alternative fuels such as E85, made with 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline. There are already more than 5 million of them on the road in the United States. And Detroit’s Big Three automakers plan to produce more than 700,000 of them in 2006.

“Flex-fuel vehicles make good economic and environmental sense,” said UAW President Ron Gettelfinger. “It’s good for America to reduce our consumption of oil, and it could create thousands of good jobs for American workers.”

Ethanol burns with 80-percent less carbon emissions than gasoline and totally eliminates the release of acid rain-causing sulfur dioxide. That makes it environmentally friendly. And making flex-fuel vehicles costs only about $150 more – compared to $2,000 to $5,000 for hybrid versions of vehicles.

It gets better.

Ethanol production is a promising rural development strategy, too. It can be made from materials such as switchgrass, wood chips and agricultural waste, in addition to things like corn, soybeans and sugar cane. The cost is lower when it’s made within about 100 miles of where the stock is grown – so local processing plants provide jobs in agricultural areas.

The biggest bottleneck is that E85 fuel is hard to find. Only about 500 of about 170,000 gas stations in the United States carry E85 or M85 (a methanol-gasoline mix).

It can be done. American manufacturing could get a big boost with vehicles that use this clean-burning and economically viable energy source.

And it wouldn’t be the first time: Henry Ford’s Model T originally was made to run on ethanol.

Larry Gabriel

GM plans called ‘investment in people’

General Motors may have been in the red last year, but it will be getting greener by 2007.

One week after reporting an $8.56 billion loss in 2005, GM announced it will be building two hybrid SUVs at its Arlington, Texas, assembly plant by late 2007. The company will build the fuel-saving two-mode hybrid transmission systems for the SUVs at its White Marsh, Md., transmission plant, near Baltimore.

GM’s $118 million investment will bring additional jobs in the future to the existing 440 jobs at the White Marsh plant, which was built in 2000.

“This investment represents more than a new product or new equipment and new tooling for this plant,” said UAW Vice President Richard Shoemaker, who directs the union’s GM Department. “This is an investment in people. It is an investment in the future of thousands of people in the Baltimore community and the state of Maryland, and it is important GM be recognized for this contribution.”

Hybrid tax credits

Under the Energy Policy Act of 2005, the federal government is offering consumer tax credits ranging from $250 to $2,600 for hybrid vehicles placed in service after Dec. 31, 2005. Union-made hybrid vehicles currently eligible for the Alternative Energy Vehicles Tax Credit are Chevrolet Silverado, GMC Sierra, Mercury Mariner and Ford Escape.

Credits start to phase out when a manufacturer has produced 60,000 hybrids.

Sam Stark

2006 E85 vehicles built by UAW members:

Cars: Chrysler Sebring sedan; Dodge Stratus sedan; Ford Taurus sedan and wagon; Lincoln Town Car.

SUVs: Chevrolet Suburban; Chevrolet Tahoe; Dodge Durango; GMC Yukon/Yukon XL.

Pickups: Chevrolet Silverado; Dodge Ram; Ford F-150; GMC Sierra.

E85 compatibility is available only on certain engine sizes.

For a list of all model year vehicles and state-by-state E85 fueling stations, go to the National Ethanol Vehicle Coalition Web site at www.e85fuel.com/index.php.