Commentary: The hunt for alternate solutions

(Carlos A. Riva is president and chief executive officer of Verenium Corporation. The opinions expressed are his.)

By Carlos A. Riva

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (Reuters.com) -- The United States faces no more pressing imperative than to reduce our national appetite for imported fuels -- and, especially, for imported petroleum. The daily outflow of dollars to pay for transportation fuel is sapping our economic strength today, and threatening our children's prospects for the future. This imperative, in turn, sets the mandate for Detroit to introduce more energy-efficient vehicles that use lower-carbon sources of fuel and energy. The logic of the 1950s is now inverted. What's good for America is what will set the blueprint for the domestic auto industry's success -- even its very survival.

The good news is that the U.S. auto manufacturers are, if anything, ahead of Congress in recognizing and responding to this mandate for change. The latest U.S. auto models in development or reaching the market feature innovative drive systems, such as plug-in hybrid electric drive, or flexible-fuel capability. Critics of the U.S. auto industry claim that it will be hard for Detroit to overcome foreign auto manufacturers' longstanding advantage in engineering well-built smaller, lighter-weight cars. But the U.S. auto manufacturers have correctly determined that offering flexible fuel capability, in an era of rising imported oil costs, is one of the best ways to assure a place for the larger cars and trucks preferred by so many Americans. Advanced biofuels offer our nation the potential to supply a significant portion of our fuels requirements from domestic sources, strengthening and renewing our own economy instead of feeding the distant, often dictatorial and hostile regimes of OPEC.

Widespread adoption of U.S.-built flex-fuel vehicles by U.S. consumers will require a concerted, multi-pronged approach involving government, the auto industry, fuels marketers and biofuels technology developers. Detroit must broaden the range of available FFV models; the biofuels industry must develop the low-carbon biofuels manufacturing capacity; and fuels marketers must deploy the distribution infrastructure required to reach markets, especially in areas of the country not currently reached by alternative fuels. This will not happen spontaneously. Strong and consistent federal support and direction will be required to bring about these changes on more or less parallel tracks.

There is no guarantee of success. Some would contend that the era of the automobile is passing, and that America will adapt to high energy costs by densifying our urban fabric, leading our daily lives with shorter and fewer trips. To a degree, this is already happening; for the first time in history, automotive miles traveled are in decline, year-over-year. But mobility is in America's cultural DNA and part of our historic national identity. If we are to have a prosperous domestic auto industry in 10 years, it appears increasingly likely, Americans will be plugging their vehicles into the grid for low-carbon electricity, or refueling at stations serving domestically sourced, low-carbon advanced biofuels.