U.S flex-fuel fleet fraught with problems

A 16-year long federal program to build a fleet of alternative-fuel vehicles for the government has been riddled with problems, according to a report by Kimberly Kindy and Dan Keating of The Washington Post.  "Under a mandate from Congress, federal agencies have gradually increased their fleets of alternative-fuel vehicles, a majority of them 'flex-fuel,' capable of running on either gasoline or ethanol-based E85 fuel. But many of the vehicles were sent to locations hundreds of miles from any alternative fueling sites, the analysis shows."  Over 92 percent of these vehicles are still using regular gasoline.  Additionally, many of the newer alternative-fuel vehicles are only available with larger engines resulting in an increase in both fuel consumption and emission rates.