Can flex-fuel cars put US on the road to low oil prices? [View all]

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/dec/10/oil-prices-climate-change-car


Eyal Aronoff believes the key to reducing oil prices lies in reprogramming the engine's of cars already on the road. Photograph: Robert Landau/Corbis

Eyal Aronoff identifies himself on his business card as an "oil addiction therapist". He's got an unconventional detox method, claiming he can get Americans off oil by making it cheaper to fill up their cars.

The software entrepreneur is a co-founder of the Fuel Freedom Foundation, a new organisation trying to make the case for cutting America's oil consumption – both foreign and domestic.

He argues – along with backers including James Woolsey, director of the CIA under Bill Clinton – that if America cuts its use of oil in half over the next 10 years, prices on the global market would drop below $50 a barrel because of reduced demand. Americans would pay about $2 a gallon to fuel up – or about half as much as they pay now.

The foundation proposes to reduce America's use of oil by widespread adoption of other liquid fuels, allowing motorists to fill up their cars interchangeably with petrol, ethanol, natural gas or methanol, at prices well below those prevailing today. The foundation also rejects the idea of subsidising cleaner fuels.