The White House won't confirm it, but President Bush plans to meet later this month with top execs from Detroit's Big Three for a much overdue pow-wow. Likely topic, according to DaimlerChrysler's man in DC: alternative and flex-fuel vehicles running on ethanol and biodiesel.
The president last met in November with top dogs Rick Wagoner of GM, Alan Mulally of Ford, and Tom LaSorda of Chrysler Group — the same lineup that flew to DC on Wednesday to explain to Congress the similarities between higher fuel efficiency standards and the Apocalypse. Since then, Bush has made ethanol a cornerstone of his energy policy, pitching its virtues in his State of the Union speech and hitting the road to Rio to score an ethanol-import deal with Brazilian President Luiz Inácio "Lula" da Silva.
Senator Debbie Stabenow of Michigan — who has been pushing Bush to meet face-to-face with auto industry CEOs for quite some time — also expects them to explore ways of boosting the number of filling stations offering ethanol and other biofuels. While automakers have pledged to build two million ethanol- and biofuel-capable vehicles a year by 2010, less than one percent of the 170,000 U.S. gas stations currently offer E85 fuel, and most of those are in the Midwest. It'll be nice to have all that Brazilian ethanol coming into the country. It would be nicer if you didn't have to drive to Iowa to buy it.
Auto Executives to Meet With Bush [AP via The Wall Street Journal (subscription required)]
