No fuel for flexfuel vehicles...

I was reading up a little on biodiesel over the weekend, and realized that although it is seemingly a great way to go, it does no good to folks with cars that run on gasoline.

So unless you're going to get a new car and choose either a hybrid or a diesel, there's not much you can do - unless we all start filling up with ethanol.

Did you know that there are actually millions of cars on the road today that are flexfuel capable? I didn't. Several makes and models of cars since 2000 are ready to take the alternative fuel - the only problem is there's hardly anywhere to fill up on the stuff.

Considering that a lot of these flex fuel vehicles are made by Ford and other American automakers, why haven't they been pushing for some ethanol infrastructure?

They've been heavy handed on selling cars with the "live green-go yellow" campaign - but what good is a flexfuel car if you've got no alternative fuel to make it go? Did they just put all their eggs in the wrong basket? Or are there some greater problems with ethanol that haven't been worked out?

According to a consumer reports article, while emissions might be down, ethanol in flexfuel vehicles doesn't improve fuel economy, and is as expensive - if not more expensive - than gasoline.

Unless the U.S. govt promised something to the automakers that hasn't yet been delivered, and unless we're going to start seeing ethanol arrive at the corner gas station, this flexfuel/ethanol thing doesn't seem like a viable solution to "getting us off foreign oil" as has been touted, nor is it a very green alternative.