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More than corn in Illinois

Let's face it. Gas prices are hovering around $3 a gallon, and they're not like to go down again any time soon. Any time soon, who am I kidding, ever. From here on out I think the price of gasoline based fuel will continue to spiral upwards. Hence, General Motors has taken a very proactive approach in their quest for a solution.

Their new campaign "From gas-friendly to gas-free" covers a lot of ground. They're talking about an Aveo that gets 34 mpg on the highway, but they're also looking at future alternatives like fuel cells, plug ins and alternative fuels.

Their latest push is E85. GM currently has more than 3 million E85 capable vehicles on the road worldwide, with plans of increasing yearly production in the United States to 2 million by 2012. To aid that effort they've been diligently working on strategic partners to create fueling stations and, now, the fuel itself.

GM's newest partnership is with Coskata, an Illinois-based company that is developing a unique three-step process to create ethanol. And they can do it not just with corn or or other home-grown products, but with waste products like old tires. The ultimate goal is to produce ethanol at a price of $1 per gallon. That's a win-win if you ask me.

Does anyone out there own an E85 vehicle? Is it something that you'd think about? What do you think the future of transportation holds? Hydrogen ... plug-ins ... diesel?

I'm putting my money on hydrogen-powered fuel cells. How about you?

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