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President Obama recently pushed the direction of government fleets into accepting a higher degree of hybrid and alternative-fuel vehicles. As of March 30, 2015 all vehicles bought for United States government fleets will need to be fuel-efficient or burn alternative fuels. This move is to decrease independence on foreign oil imports to maintain a high degree of productivity and extend the life of fossil fuels.
The problem arises of how exactly this kind of fleet will be supported. Many of these vehicles are equipped in such a way so as to allow either regular gasoline or more efficient fuels to be used. The gasoline portion of the system is in place to allow the vehicles to perform the heavier work that is sometimes required of them. The rest of the time, the vehicle should be drawing from the alternative fuel.
Switching to hybrids is well and good; but there is not a lot of infrastructure in place to support it. Only 1% of gas stations in the United States dispense ethanol blend E85. That 1% supplies fuel to nearly 86% of the alternative-fuel fleet. The rates of alternative-fuel pumps are not increasing to match the expected growth in alternative-fuel vehicles.
Those vehicles that feature the dual fuel set up are not efficient when it comes to running normal gasoline. They average approximately 20 miles per gallon in general. The low amount of alternative-fueling stations available in the United States means those vehicles are going to be driving on gasoline on a fairly frequent basis.
E85 ethanol is currently available at approximately 2,400 stations in the United States. A majority of those stations are primarily centralized in the Midwest. To meet the federal mandate of 36 billion gallons of renewable fuel in use by 2020; the United States needs to add 53,000 ethanol or alternative-fuel pumps.
The demand for hybrid and alternative-fuel automobiles is expected to stay low through as near as 2016. Sales are not likely to breach 10% even with rising fuel costs because of the concern of lack of infrastructure and expense for alternative-fuel vehicles. Other types of vehicle powered by such things as fuel cells and electricity are still being ushered into the market.
One should expect to see additional measures added to the current existing infrastructure to accommodate this attempted change in the United States’ overall direction. Without them, we will only see a greater increase in burnt fossil fuels.
