Learning a lesson from Brazil's flex car makoever

The average price of gasoline per gallon nationwide is continuously on the rise, at some places even above $3.25.  Contrary to the oil shock in the 1970s, today's issue centers around demand.  With China and India using more oil ever than ever, U.S. consumers are feeling the squeeze.

But it does not have to be this way.  Over in Brazil, the sugar industry is creating a cleaner, cheaper form of energy used to make ethanol-powered "flex cars".  Jim Avila of ABC News filed a report on how Brazil got it right:

When Brazilians say fill it up, they're not getting the oily mixAmericans see at the pump, which is 90 percent gasoline and 10 percentethanol.

They get pure ethanol, as Brazil now produces 5 billion gallons of thesugar-cane distilled fuel annually. That's enough to powerthree-quarters of the nearly 2 million cars South America's largestcountry makes every year.

The production advantages are obvious — with sugar cane the energysource is above ground and can be produced for $30 dollars a barrel.Today a barrel of oil is priced at more than double that.

At the Brazilian pump, ethanol is nearly half the cost of gasoline. Italso burns cleaner and is the leading reason this country is nowentirely energy independent, no longer buying any oil on the foreignmarket.

...Gas dealers were forced to offer ethanol at their pumps, and carbuyers who purchased flex cars that are built with the technology torun on ethanol, gasoline or a mix of both received tax incentives.Today ethanol outsells gasoline, and three out of every four new carssold is a flex car.

Once drivers start driving these vehicles, the economics take over.

It would cost $529 in gas to make a cross-country trip from Californiato New York in a Chevy pickup. To make the same trip in the samevehicle powered by ethanol would cost $218.

And some Brazilians even say their cars have more power when ethanol is pumped into the tank.

Even more ironically, the same car companies such as Ford that have failed in the U.S. to make more fuel efficient cars are supplying Brazil with just that.  The technology is there.  But the energy lobbyists at Exxon on Capitol Hill are preventing that from happening.  So politically speaking, it would be smart for a lawmaker to stand up and say, "Hey everyone, look at Brazil."