Our national pathway to a secure energy future will be composed of making today’s internal combustion engines more efficient, developing home-grown biofuels, plugging in our cars, and harnessing the renewable, pollution-free potential of hydrogen. The next generation of vehicles and fuels is already in sight. Alexander Karsner, U. S. Department of Energy

The Alternative Fuels Program promotes Texas’ energy security and air quality by supporting public and private partnerships that deploy clean-burning alternative fuel vehicles (AFVs) and build their associated fueling infrastructure. The program thrives on strong local initiatives and a flexible approach to building alternative fuels markets, providing participants with options to address problems unique to their cities and fostering partnerships to help overcome them. 

Originally the Alternative Fuels Program was designed to help state agencies operate more of their fleets on alternative fuels, but through SECO’s expanded initiatives, schools, local governments and private fleets are now involved. Initiatives include support for the Clean Cities program, financial assistance for an energy education school curriculum in energy basics and alternative fuels, and the Adopt-a-School-Bus and Clean School Bus USA programs. Through its award winning Clean Cities program, SECO promotes the reduction of petroleum use through four new technology elements: fuel blends, fuel economy, hybrids and idle reduction. The use of alternative fuels reduces our dependence on imported petroleum, contributes to a cleaner environment, and furthers the rural farm economy by creating markets for agricultural crops.

Using alternative fuels can have significant economic and environmental benefits for fleets and the driving public and can also help reduce our nation’s dependence on imported petroleum. As defined by the Energy Policy Act of 1992 (EPAct) the U.S. Department of Energy currently recognizes the following as alternative fuels:

• methanol, denatured ethanol, and other alcohols.
• mixtures containing 85% or more by volume of methanol, denatured ethanol, and other alcohols with gasoline or other fuels.
• natural gas: compressed (CNG) or liquefied (LNG).
• liquefied petroleum gas (propane).
• hydrogen
• coal-derived liquid fuels.
• non-alcohol fuels (such as biodiesel) derived from biological material
• electricity (including electricity from solar energy).
• 100% Biodiesel (B100)

P-Series fuels were subsequently added to the original EPAct alternative fuels definition. These are fuels designed by the Pure Fuel Corporation to run in E85/gasoline flexible fuel vehicles.

2008 U.S. Farm Bill

In May, 2008, the U.S. Congress passed the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008, the new farm bill that will accelerate the commercialization of advanced biofuels, including cellulosic ethanol, encourage the production of biomass crops, and expand the current Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Program. Section 9003 provides for grants covering up to 30% of the cost of developing and building demonstration-scale biorefineries for producing "advanced biofuels," which essentially includes all fuels that are not produced from corn kernel starch. It also allows for loan guarantees of up to $250 million for building commercial-scale biorefineries to produce advanced biofuels. For bill details, see this DOE article.

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