Ford Motor Co. Chairman William Clay Ford Jr., expressed frustration Tuesday night at the slow pace of alternative fuel development, specifically in the area of cellulosic ethanol, during a lecture at the School of Natural Resources and Environment at the University of Michigan. Last year, Ford joined other American carmaker pledging that half of their vehicles would be flex-fuel models by 2012 if such fuels were available. The New York Times reports…
The pledge followed incentives from the Bush administration for the development of E85, an ethanol-gasoline mixture that causes less carbon dioxide emissions than gasoline. Mr. Ford said, however, that he supported the move on the expectation that fuel producers would move quickly from E85, which is derived from corn, to cellulosic ethanol, which is made from wood chips and other fibers. Critics have said E85 is too costly to the environment to be a long-term alternative. A gallon of E85 often costs more than a gallon of gasoline, though a car does not go as far on it.
“It certainly appeared a year ago that we were going to have a national push on ethanol, and we wanted to have the vehicles ready,” Mr. Ford said. “But we always knew that food-based ethanol would not be the answer. The shift to cellulosic ethanol has been slower than we were led to believe.” He added: “If we don’t end up with cellulosic ethanol quickly, we are going to hit the wall on ethanol.”
Fo0d-based ethanol currently gets much more government help, in the form of subsidies and tax breaks, than the cellulosic ethanol sector gets government help in the form of research-and-development funding.
Chairman Ford also had some interesting comments about the need to encourage more usage of bicycles, mopeds and mass transit.
Pictured: Ford Escape Hybrid SUV that can run on gasoline or E-85 fuel.
