Consumers of green vehicles have learned already that if your only goal for purchasing a car is to be “green,” then you have limited choices and options. Although the government has promised to “lead the way” on alternative fuels and vehicles, emphasizing electric and hybrid-electric cars, it’s not exactly following through. With costs and availability getting in the way, the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA), which purchases all of the government’s fleet – with the exception of the U.S. Postal Service fleet – for federal use, has resorted to meeting the mandate not by asking manufacturers to raise production levels or by emptying car lots, but instead by choosing the most available, but arguably least “green” of the options available to meet the mandate.

Instead of purchasing hybrids and electrics, the GSA has instead turned to E85 ethanol “flex fuel” vehicles which are capable of running on up to 85% ethanol (15% gasoline) mixes. “Up to” is the important factor, since they can also run on gasoline only and with only about 2,500 E85 pumps in the United States, out of 162,000 total fueling stations, there are fewer E85 pumps than there are public electric charging stations – there are about 6,000 of those. All according to another government agency, the Department of Energy.

Yet turning to ethanol vehicles has enabled the GSA to meet the White House mandates for “clean vehicles” despite the huge down sides that ethanol has. In the United States, nearly all ethanol is made from corn in a process that is, at best, emissions-neutral given the amount of energy (mostly petroleum) required to plant, grow, harvest, and process corn-based ethanol. Added to that, ethanol-burning engines are about 87% as efficient as gasoline-based due to the lower energy density of E85. This may be offset by emissions, but some arguments are that when the energies (gallons per mile) are equalized, there is little benefit to corn-based ethanol as a fuel. All of which assumes the vehicle is being filled with ethanol, which the above pump numbers show is an iffy prospect. 2010 numbers show that 55% of federal employees assigned E85 vehicles were given waivers to use regular gasoline as ethanol was not available to them.

Most of the photo opportunities taken during the Obama administration’s green fleet initiative tours last year included electric and hybrid-electric vehicles, such as that shown in the White House photo included here. Yet the GAO reports that its hybrid and electric vehicle purchases dropped by 59% last year, to only 2,645 vehicles while 32,000 E85 flex-fuel vehicles were added. A total of 54,843 vehicles were purchased last year by the GSA.

2011 purchases by the GSA included 1 Toyota Prius, 145 Chevrolet Volts, 1,380 Ford Fusion Hybrids, 101 Honda Insight Hybrids, and 11 Daimler AG Smart Cars

Paul Coon, Vice President of Green Vehicle Disposal commented, “We currently have more than 100 auto recyclers in our program across North America and I highly recommend all affiliates and any auto recycler who is serious about protecting the environment to invest in a Crow Environmental System, it is that good!”

We are proud supporters of America Recycles Day this month on the 15th.  It is a great time to spread the word about how important the auto recycling industry is to the future of a greener planet!  According to the Automotive Recyclers Association, the industry’s international trade association, just about everything in your car – from the floor mats and instrument panels to the upholstery, aluminum and steel – can be recycled for use in a new automobile or other consumer products.

Approximately 84% of each vehicle is recycled and during this process six million tires and millions of gallons of antifreeze, oil, gasoline and oil are recycled.  Automobile recycling recovers enough steel to produce almost 13 million automobiles and saves an estimated eleven million gallons of oil that would otherwise be needed to manufacture new automobile parts.  We spoke with David Gold (owner of Standard Auto Wreckers) and he said, “Most people don’t realize it but auto recycling is the original green industry and automobiles are currently the most recycled consumer product in the entire world”.

The efforts of automotive recyclers not only preserve natural resources and conserve landfill space, but they also reduce air and water pollution that would otherwise occur in the manufacturing process of building new cars.  We would like to tip our hat to David Gold and the rest of the auto recyclers in our network and across North America and the world.  Keep up the good work!!!!