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111 TH CONGRESS 1 ST SESSION 

# H. R. 1476

To require automobile manufacturers to ensure that not less than 80 percent of the automobiles manufactured or sold in the United States by each such manufacturer to operate on fuel mixtures containing 85 percent ethanol, 85 percent methanol, or biodiesel.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

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ARCH 12, 2009 Mr. E NGEL (for himself, Mr. INGLIS , Mr. I SRAEL , and Mr. BARTLETT ) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce



# A BILL To require automobile manufacturers to ensure that not less than 80 percent of the automobiles manufactured or sold in the United States by each such manufacturerto operate on fuel mixtures containing 85 percent ethanol, 85 percent methanol, or biodiesel.Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Open Fuel Standard 4 Act of 2009’’ or the ‘‘OFS Act’’. 5


•HR 1476 IH SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSES. 1 (a) F INDINGS .—Congress makes the following find2 ings: 3 (1) The status of oil as a strategic commodity, 4 which derives from its domination of the transpor5 tation sector, presents a clear and present danger to 6 the United States; 7 (2) in a prior era, when salt was a strategic 8 commodity, salt mines conferred national power and 9 wars were fought over the control of such mines; 10 (3) technology, in the form of electricity and re11 frigeration, decisively ended salt’s monopoly of meat 12 preservation and greatly reduced its strategic impor13 tance; 14 (4) fuel competition and consumer choice would 15 similarly serve to end oil’s monopoly in the transpor16 tation sector and strip oil of its strategic status; 17 (5) the current closed fuel market has allowed 18 a cartel of petroleum exporting countries to inflate 19 fuel prices, effectively imposing a harmful tax on the 20 economy of the United States; 21 (6) much of the inflated petroleum revenues the 22 oil cartel earns at the expense of the people of the 23 United States are used for purposes antithetical to 24 the interests of the United States and its allies; 25


•HR 1476 IH(7) alcohol fuels, including ethanol and meth1 anol, could potentially provide significant supplies of 2 additional fuels that could be produced in the United 3 States and in many other countries in the Western 4 Hemisphere that are friendly to the United States; 5 (8) alcohol fuels can only play a major role in 6 securing the energy independence of the United 7 States if a substantial portion of vehicles in the 8 United States are capable of operating on such fuels; 9 (9) it is not in the best interest of United 10 States consumers or the United States Government 11 to be constrained to depend solely upon petroleum 12 resources for vehicle fuels if alcohol fuels are poten13 tially available; 14 (10) existing technology, in the form of flexible 15 fuel vehicles, allows internal combustion engine cars 16 and trucks to be produced at little or no additional 17 cost, which are capable of operating on conventional 18 gasoline, alcohol fuels, or any combination of such 19 fuels, as availability or cost advantage dictates, pro20 viding a platform on which fuels can compete; 21 (11) the necessary distribution system for such 22 alcohol fuels will not be developed in the United 23 States until a substantial fraction of the vehicles in 24


•HR 1476 IH the United States are capable of operating on such 1 fuels; 2 (12) the establishment of such a vehicle fleet 3 and distribution system would provide a large mar4 ket that would mobilize private resources to substan5 tially advance the technology and expand the pro6 duction of alcohol fuels in the United States and 7 abroad; 8 (13) the United States has an urgent national 9 security interest to develop alcohol fuels technology, 10 production, and distribution systems as rapidly as 11 possible; 12 (14) new cars sold in the United States that 13 are equipped with an internal combustion engine 14 should allow for fuel competition by being flexible 15 fuel vehicles, and new diesel cars should be capable 16 of operating on biodiesel; and 17 (15) such an open fuel standard would help to 18 protect the United States economy from high and 19 volatile oil prices and from the threats caused by 20 global instability, terrorism, and natural disaster. 21

SEC. 3. OPEN FUEL STANDARD FOR TRANSPORTATION. 22 Chapter 329 of title 49, United States Code, is 23 amended by adding at the end the following: 24


•HR 1476 IH‘‘SEC. 32920. OPEN FUEL STANDARD FOR TRANSPOR1

TATION. 2 ‘‘(a) D EFINITIONS .—In this section: 3 ‘‘(1) E85.—The term ‘E85’ means a fuel mix4 ture containing 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent 5 gasoline by volume. 6 ‘‘(2) F LEXIBLE FUEL AUTOMOBILE .—The term 7 ‘flexible fuel automobile’ means an automobile that 8 has been warranted by its manufacturer to operate 9 on gasoline, E85, and M85. 10 ‘‘(3) F UEL CHOICE

- ENABLING AUTOMOBILE .— 11 The term ‘fuel choice-enabling automobile’ means— 12 ‘‘(A) a flexible fuel automobile; or 13 ‘‘(B) an automobile that has been war14 ranted by its manufacturer to operate on bio15 diesel. 16 ‘‘(4) L IGHT

- DUTY AUTOMOBILE .—The term 17 ‘light-duty automobile’ means— 18 ‘‘(A) a passenger automobile; or 19 ‘‘(B) a non-passenger automobile. 20 ‘‘(5) L IGHT

- DUTY AUTOMOBILE MANUFAC

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TURER’ S ANNUAL COVERED INVENTORY .—The term 22 ‘light-duty automobile manufacturer’s annual cov23 ered inventory’ means the number of light-duty 24 automobiles powered by an internal combustion en25 gine that a manufacturer, during a given calendar 26


•HR 1476 IH year, manufactures in the United States or imports 1 from outside of the United States for sale in the 2 United States. 3 ‘‘(6) M85.—The term ‘M85’ means a fuel mix4 ture containing 85 percent methanol and 15 percent 5 gasoline by volume. 6 ‘‘(b) O PEN F UEL S TANDARD FOR T RANSPOR

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TATION .— 8 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL .—Except as provided in para9 graph (2), each light-duty automobile manufactur10 er’s annual covered inventory shall be comprised 11 of— 12 ‘‘(A) not less than 50 percent fuel choice13 enabling automobiles in 2012, 2013, and 2014; 14
and 15 ‘‘(B) not less than 80 percent fuel choice16 enabling automobiles in 2015, and in each sub17 sequent year. 18 ‘‘(2) T EMPORARY EXEMPTION FROM REQUIRE

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MENTS .— 20 ‘‘(A) A PPLICATION .—A manufacturer may 21 request an exemption from the requirement de22 scribed in paragraph (1) by submitting an ap23 plication to the Secretary, at such time, in such 24 manner, and containing such information as the 25


•HR 1476 IH Secretary may require by regulation. Each such 1 application shall specify the models, lines, and 2 types of automobiles affected. 3 ‘‘(B) E VALUATION .—After evaluating an 4 application received from a manufacturer, the 5 Secretary may at any time, under such terms 6 and conditions, and to such extent as the Sec7 retary considers appropriate, temporarily ex8 empt, or renew the exemption of, a light-duty 9 automobile from the requirement described in 10 paragraph (1) if the Secretary determines that 11 unavoidable events not under the control of the 12 manufacturer prevent the manufacturer of such 13 automobile from meeting its required produc14 tion volume of fuel choice-enabling automobiles, 15 including— 16 ‘‘(i) a disruption in the supply of any 17 component required for compliance with 18 the regulations; 19 ‘‘(ii) a disruption in the use and in20 stallation by the manufacturer of such 21 component; or 22 ‘‘(iii) application to plug-in electric ve23 hicles causing such vehicles to fail to meet 24 State air quality requirements. 25


•HR 1476 IH ‘‘(C) C ONSOLIDATION .—The Secretary 1 may consolidate applications received from mul2 tiple manufacturers under subparagraph (A) if 3 they are of a similar nature. 4 ‘‘(D) C ONDITIONS .—Any exemption grant5 ed under subparagraph (B) shall be conditioned 6 upon the manufacturer’s commitment to recall 7 the exempted automobiles for installation of the 8 omitted components within a reasonable time 9 proposed by the manufacturer and approved by 10 the Secretary after such components become 11 available in sufficient quantities to satisfy both 12 anticipated production and recall volume re13 quirements. 14 ‘‘(E) NOTICE .—The Secretary shall pub15 lish in the Federal Register— 16 ‘‘(i) notice of each application received 17 from a manufacturer; 18 ‘‘(ii) notice of each decision to grant 19 or deny a temporary exemption; and 20 ‘‘(iii) the reasons for granting or de21 nying such exemptions. 22 ‘‘(3) RULEMAKING .—Not later than 1 year 23 after the date of enactment of this Act, the Sec24


•HR 1476 IHretary of Transportation shall promulgate regula1 tions to carry out this section.’’. 2 

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