Flex Fuel pumps + Flex Fuel vehicles = True Fuel Choice

National Security experts Robert C. McFarlane and R. James Woolse penned an important opinion in the New York Times

this morning in which they describe how America can break its addiction to foreign fuels.

The answer? Reduce oil’s strategic importance through competition in the fuels market. By building vehicles that can run on fuels other than petroleum, we can realistically break the stronghold that oil companies and Middle East cartels have on our nation.

As the authors assert, “a solution is at hand; it lies in Detroit’s making more flex-fuel cars — cars able to use gasoline, ethanol, methanol or any mixture of these. And because this flex-fuel option costs less than $100 per car, making such a change is not exorbitant.”

Putting more Flex Fuel vehicles (FFV) on the road is an incredibly worthy goal, but ramping up production of these vehicles alone will not solve our energy crisis.

Today, almost nine million vehicles on U.S. highways are Flex Fuel vehicles, yet, studies indicate that most FFV owners don’t realize their cars can run on ethanol.

This is in part because Flex Fuel vehicle owners don’t have access to anything but conventional gasoline when they pull up to the pump.

If we truly want to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, create good-paying U.S. jobs and save consumers money at the pump, we need to ensure that our entire transportation fueling system can dispense and utilize more ethanol.

Putting a Flex Fuel pump – which is capable of dispensing various levels of ethanol – at every filling station will ensure that Flex Fuel car owners have access to the fuel their vehicles were designed to run on.

Increasing the number of FFVs on the road and Flex Fuel pumps at gas stations will give consumers an opportunity to choose their fuel based on price and performance – and help our nation meet the thresholds set by the Renewable Fuel Standard.

Our nation’s dependence on foreign oil is unsustainable and is hurting our economy and national security. It’s time to invest in smart policies that will create competition in the fuels market and strip oil of its monopolistic hold over our nation.