'Open Fuel Standard' Proponents Want More Flexible FFVs

"You can have a real plan around methanol, a real plan around LNG and a real plan around biofuels," he explained. "Each plan stands on its own so that there's a 'grocery story' of fuel alternatives."

A Legislative Route

Some members of the U.S. Congress have attempted to spur greater fuel flexibility by legislative means. Just 2 years ago, backers of the Open Fuel Standard Act of 2011 sought to require 95 percent of new passenger vehicles sold in the United States to be capable of running on substitute fuels within a 10-year period. The bill, which was co-sponsored by Democrats as well as Republicans, ultimately died in committee.

A revised version of the bill, which would lower the FFV threshold to 30 percent of new vehicles in 2015 and raise it to 50 percent the following year, will be introduced in the current Congress this month, according to a recent press release from the office of U.S. Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.). The latest incarnation of the Open Fuel Standard Act had not been introduced in the 113^th Congress at this writing, but one can determine whether the bill has been introduced and check where it stands in the legislative process via The Library of Congress' website.

Korin asserts that legislation such as the Open Fuel Standards Act would be a "win-win" for motorists as well as domestic natural gas producers.

"If our cars were open to fuels competition, arbitrage between for example methanol and gasoline would eventually, with sufficient global methanol production capacity, drive oil prices down even as it drives natural gas prices up," Korin said. "That would be a tremendous boon to the natural gas industry and bring natural gas prices to a more economically sustainable footing."

"An open fuel standard should be a high priority for the natural gas industry," she concluded.