Can Ethanol Save GM

When all the auto makers came out with hybrids except GM, everybody bashed them. Said they missed out and that they were behind in the technology race. Toyota has invested somewhere in the $20 billion range so far in hybrid development. Well it appears that GM has maybe found their own niche. E85, the ethanol based fuel, is GM's push behind their Live Green Go Yellow campaign. I know there are issues with ethanol production, but E85 runs on 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline. The amount of gas we can save via E85 rather than just hybrids alone would be staggering to the bottom line. If they could combine the two and have hybrids that run on E85 we could really start to see a reduction in our oil usage.

Right now our dependence on foreign oil is a greater risk than the environmental questions in the production of ethanol fuel. Besides we benefit from the burning of ethanol being a cleaner process then our current emission standards in burning gas. And now it turns out the Europe is joining the E85 push. Wednesday the first E85 fueling station opened in The United Kingdom. Instead of corn they are using sugar beets. This could also be a huge development for Brazil who could possibly become the Saudi Arabia of ethanol fuel. Only this time we would be self-sufficient with ethanol. We can dream.