New York City, October 16, 2005

The news from Washington are that Governors Bill Richardson, Democrat
of New
Mexico, former US Secretary of Energy and former US Ambassador to the
UN, and
Governor Jeb Bush, Republican of Florida and brother of President
George W.
Bush, have decided to ditch their Lincoln Navigator S.U.V. and the Ford
Expedition S.U.V., respectively, in favor of a Ford Escape hybrid
vehicle. The Ford
Expedition used to guzzle gas and deliver only six to eight
miles-per-gallon.
These Governors decided that you cannot talk to the folks about
conservation
without making at least some symbolic sacrifice. So out went those
rugged S.U.V.
vehicles, and in came the best US made vehicle their position helped
them
find. Will their example persuade Detroit to make a bigger effort
needed in order
to see a real stream of these vehicles hit the market?

Governors Rod R. Blagojevich of Illinois and Dirk Kempthorne of Idaho
chose
to give a different example. They switched to a Chevrolet Suburban
fueled by
E85. Governors Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota and Tom Vilsack of Iowa, will
stay with
S.U.V.s but will use E85 for fuel. The E85 is a mixture of 85% ethanol,
locally produced biofuel, and only 15% gasoline. This mixture that uses
the biofuel
may not be the best use of the locally produced biofuel. In effect a
much
more efficient use of ethanol is to spread it out over a much larger
amount of
gasoline - not use it as fuel but as octane boosting additive to the
gasoline.
The idea was already championed 25 years ago by Senator Frank Church of
Idaho
who wanted to mandate by law the introduction of 1% ethanol, in all of
the US,
the first year and up to 10% after 10 years. This way the given amount
of
ethanol displaces the maximum amount of petroleum product and has
rather a larger
impact via the desired goal of decreasing imports of oil - the folks
home may
be less impressed at first blush, but the fact that they do not
understand the
difference is a direct result of the fact that the information about
the use
of ethanol was suppressed for years by the oil industry and even by a
US
Department of Energy influenced by the oil industry, and others who do
the leg work
for the oil interests.

Using E85 in S.U.V.s makes even less sense, because guzzling E85 has
really
very little redeeming value when one tries to spell out the word
conservation.
That at least is something even the uninformed folks should be able to
figure
out. What is Detroit supposed to learn from these recent attempts by
Governors? Is there indeed a substitute for a White House that should
lead by
suggesting needed enhanced miles-per-gallon standards - asking for
legislation or
regulation and provide the needed enforcement of these much more
stringent
standards?