The push is on to use alternative fuel sources to power U.S vehicles. The 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act takes up the cause — it mandates the use of 36 billion gallons of renewable transportation fuels by 2022. If every cloud really has a silver lining, then the urgent need to reduce dependence on fossil fuels — both for environmental and economic reasons — calls upon American ingenuity to escape this predicament.

Ethanol

The original flex-fuel vehicle was the model T; it could run on ethanol, gas or a combination of the two. By 1917, annual U.S. ethanol production reached 50 to 60 million gallons. In 2008, it reached 7.2 billion gallons. Ethanol’s source is plants such as corn and sugarcane. Cellulosic ethanol, rather than consuming food and animal crops for fuel, uses crop residues, including stalks, hulls and wood byproducts to power your car. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, emissions from cellulosic ethanol are up to 86 percent lower than gasoline emissions.