Ethanol 'the answer,' auto execs tell Bush

[Poiuyt]

• NEW: President praises Detroit for making "flex-fuel" vehicles
• NEW: Execs say half of vehicles could run on E85 by 2012
• NEW: Environmentalists want more fuel-efficient vehicles

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush, seeking to rev up support for his energy plan, praised domestic automakers Monday for building more "flexible fuel" vehicles capable of running on ethanol and biodiesel blends.

"That's a major technological breakthrough for the country," Bush said. "If you want to reduce gasoline usage like I believe we need to do so for national security reasons as well as for environmental concerns, the consumer has got to be in a position to make a rational choice."

Bush said he appreciated "that American automobile manufacturers recognize the reality of the world in which we live in and are using new technologies to use the consumers different options."

================

Environmental groups said the focus on ethanol blends would undermine attempts to push automakers to make more fuel efficient cars.

"Making our cars and light trucks go farther on a gallon of gas is the single biggest step we can take toward saving American families money at the pump, ending our dangerous addiction to oil, and curbing global warming," said Dan Becker, the Sierra Club's director of the global warming and energy program.

more -

http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/03/26/bush.automakers.ap/index.html

[wtmusic]

1. Internal combustion is a dead end

much as automakers and the Petroleum Institute want us to believe otherwise.

[benld74]

2. So then tell me Auto exec, how will they 'SHIP' it since it corrodes the pipelines!

[jwirr]

3. That still puts us square in the petroleum business.

[Ignacio Upton]

5. And puts us at risk with higher food prices

n/t.

[jwirr]

10. Thanks, I forgot that aspect.

[Kelly Rupert]

4. Only if the question is

"What is the least-efficient 'alternate-energy' motor fuel?"
or
"Which 'alternate-energy' motor fuel would allow the auto industry to roll over production without major redesign costs?"

[Atman]

6. Don't worry...crops are always stable, and there will never be a drought...

...and...and...we grow lots of sugarcane in the United States...and...and...maybe they'll finally start leveling suburbs and turning them into farmland, instead of the other way around...and...and...

More backward thinking by the most backward thinking group of thugs ever.

.

[Ezlivin]

7. Wait a second! I thought hydrogen was going to be the "answer"!

Oh, that's right: It's just a shell game and we're the suckers.

Ethanol is a scam just like hydrogen power. We'd be better off building a better mass transit system or a shipload of bike trails.

[wtmusic]

11. It's the answer to the question, "How can we distract the American public

long enough to sell them every remaining drop of oil in the earth's crust?"

[Initech]

8. Doesnt it take as many resources needed to produce a gallon of E85 as it does regular gas?

:shrug:

If so, we may not be coming out ahead here...

[Tyler Durden]

9. The message from the rich, pig Bush power elite is still the same:

"Heads, WE win; Tails, YOU lose."

[MazeRat7]

12. Humm... well the smart money is in corn futures and secondly cattle futures..

Translation: expect the price to beef to radically increase in the future due to the higher cost of corn.

Play it either way...

MZr7