If we are to allow a massive raid on the Treasury in the hope of providing a speed-bump on the certain road to reorganization and downsizing of Ford, General Motors and Chrysler, the least we can do is get for the country something of lasting value in exchange. Here’s a modest proposal: Set America free from its enslaving addiction to oil.
As Robert Zubrin, author of “Energy Victory” has observed, what is really “addicted to oil” are our cars. The vast majority have to use gasoline or diesel fuel derived from petroleum, the preponderance of which must be imported from places that are, at best unstable and at worst downright hostile to us.
[...]By making new cars sold in America capable of running not only on gasoline but on ethanol or methanol, we can offer consumers fuel choice and wean ourselves from our present, dangerous dependency on foreign oil. Such cars are called Flexible Fuel Vehicles (FFVs). Detroit knows how to make them cost-effectively (for less than an extra $100 per car): There are more than 6 million of its FFVs on America’s highways now and many millions more that it has sold to Brazil where they are required.
[...]If Congress wants the American people along on its current road-trip with the autos, it had better have something to show for the ride other than throwing good money after bad. Adopting an Open Fuel Standard as part of the rescue package this week – and, thereby, helping to set America free from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries – would be a lasting achievement on the path we must take to energy security.