There have been discussions (Hybrid Review Hybrid Cars Blog) on what's better, flex-fuel vehicles (aka ethanol and biodiesel) or hybrids. My best guess is that Ford set this conversation topic off when they announced that they won't make their hybrid target but are also focusing on flex fuels to reduce the CO2 performance. Toyota has also been at the press-release podium, but they banging the drums hard on plug-in hybrids, more hybrids, and "Oh, yeah, flexfuels too". Both these positions make sense: Toyota's got the hybrid experience and sales, while Ford is making flexfuel gestures toward the US domestic market (the corn industry loves ethanol talk) because they're not as hybrid ready. Flex fuel compatibility is easy to implement, priced in the hundreds of dollars, while hybrid technology is difficult and priced in the thousands of dollars.

That's great and all, but what about the big picture? It's all about getting unhooked from the oil spigot and keeping more CO2 and emissions out of the air, right? I think that neither thing will be sufficient by itself. Full-on ethanol is not going to get us there for a while. The Oil Drum has had several posts on why we can't severely dent our oil consumption with ethanol - we're limited by the corn we can produce. Corn to ethanol is what we have right now until cellulosic ethanol is taken out of the labs. This is why we have to come up with more efficient vehicles, and hybrids are one solution to the problem.

The one false idea in all the conversations is that these are competing technologies - THEY'RE NOT! Flexfuels are targeting what the engine burns, hybrids are targeting how to use the energy found in the fuel most efficiently. Research in both fields are necessary because one solution isn't solving all the problems. Corn and cellulosic ethanol will progress (after all, it will get better) and eventually become a large source of fuel. Batteries will advance and hybrids will transition to plug-in hybrids and efficiency will increase.

In the mean time, if you hear your elected representatives calling for E85 pumps around the country, be sure to remember that they havn't yet figured out how to put fuel in the pumps.