by Daniel J. Gansle

Created on: September 10, 2008

The other day while driving to an author event, my eye caught something I've never seen before. I was at a traffic light and a light grey medium-sized pickup truck was in front of me. It wasn't atypical to see a pickup truck in Texas, but what was unusual were the words "flex-fuel" written on the tailgate. Later, I realized that I had just encountered a vehicle that is manufactured to run on both gasoline and ethanol.

Ethanol, or E-85, is a blend of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline and is the most popular form of alternative fuel in use today. On December 19, 2007, President George W. Bush signed into law the Energy Independence and Security Act which, among other initiatives, sets forth an eightfold increase in ethanol production from 4.7 billion gallons in 2007 to 36 billion gallons by 2022.

So why is demand for alternative fuels such as ethanol increasing? Let's take a look at the Top 3 factors pushing forward demand for non petroleum-based fuels.

3) Increased worldwide oil consumption. China and India (particularly China), are industrializing and are experiencing phenomenal growth. Accordingly, they require an increasing amount of oil to fuel that growth. This is taking place in an environment of increased demand for oil in industrialized nations as well, though in recent days demand has fallen slightly due to economic decline. In order to offset the use of finite fossil fuels, alternative fuels such as ethanol are stepping in to fill the gap.

2) Peak oil. Peak oil theory posits that worldwide oil production has peaked and has now entered a period of decline. I personally believe oil executives, including one George W. Bush and Dick Cheney (both oil men along with Condi Rice, who served on the board of Chevron), are fully aware of this reality and are alarmed by it. With China and India industrializing and using more of the world's oil at a time when all viable oil fields have been tapped and reserves are beginning to dwindle, oil prices will rise as supply decreases and demand increases. Alternative fuels add to the supply of fuel which offsets rising prices and shortages associated with petroleum products. This leads us to the most critical factor pushing forward the use of alternative fuels: national security.

1) National Security. The last remaining pools of oil are found in the tumultuous Middle East region and North Africa. Both areas are politically unstable and are breeding grounds for international terrorism. In our day and age of energy security, it is absolutely true that America will use her military might to fight for these oil resources if need be. Yet in doing so, we risk an increase in retaliatory international terrorism. Energy security is inherent to our national security. Alternative energy adds a new fuel to the mix, one that is not based on extracting energy from areas where terrorism breeds. It's a clear formula: an increase in biofuels means a decrease in potential terrorism.

A peek into the future of alternative fuels gives us a picture of ethanol production without the use of corn or sugar. Because of recent advances in cellulosic ethanol extraction technology including switchgrass and wood chips, alternative fuels may have an even brighter future in the days to come.

The only question is whether we can find a viable long-term alternative fuel in time before the high cost of oil threatens technological and societal progress. In the meanwhile, alternative fuels such as ethanol remain an important short-term solution to bridge that gap.

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