Here’s a couple of national feature stories about ethanol and flex-fuel vehicles (FFVs) that have come out in the last couple of days:

This Knight-Ridder article, dateline Maryland, has the headline “Ethanol gets a push, but road ahead fraught with challenge.” It starts off talking about how E85 is not selling well outside of the midwest unless it is lower in price, but also brings up the fact that there some five million FFV’s on the road, that ethanol production is increasing and that oil companies are the major obstacle to increased ethanol use. This story, which includes quotes from Bob Dinneen at the Renewable Fuels Association and Phil Lampert at the National Ethanol Vehicle Coalition, got some very good distribution nationwide. The link is to the long version of the story, which also includes some international bio-fuels facts at the end of the piece.

This Associated Press article just came out today, dateline Los Angeles. In typical mainstream media fashion, it starts out with the charge that automakers are making more FFVs to “skirt mileage standards.” Not a real positive tone in the story for the industry, but it does point out the number of FFVs on the road, that E85 is often cheaper than gasoline and that car companies are starting to promote their FFVs. It also points people to e85fuel.com to find out if their car will run on 85 percent ethanol fuel.