Stephens, who was in Orlando last week to speak at the National Ethanol Conference, is vice chairman of global product operations for General Motors. He knows as well as anybody that our gasoline supply won't last forever, and we're long past the point where we should be concentrating our efforts on weaning the U.S. from our dependence on oil.

This does not mean Stephens doesn't appreciate horsepower. He has a collection of American muscle cars, ranging from Chevrolet Corvettes to Pontiac Trans-Ams to Plymouth Road Runners, and he used to be a drag racer. So don't confuse him with ultra-green advocates who barely tolerate the internal combustion engine.

But, Stephens says, "We've got to do something."

He sees the solution, as do many in his business, as a lot of little solutions: Better mileage for current products, plus hybrids, electric vehicles, hydrogen fuel cells, biodiesel.

And, more immediately, ethanol. We in Florida already have 10 percent ethanol in our gasoline, far ahead of a state mandate that says all gasoline sold in Florida by the end of 2010 must be E10, which means it contains at least 10 percent ethanol. But Stephens would like to see more emphasis on E85, which is 85 percent ethanol — which is alcohol made from a variety of sources, but mostly corn at present — and 15 percent gasoline.

There are about 7.5 million cars and trucks on the road in the United States that are "flex fuel," meaning they can run on gasoline or E85, and GM has built about 4 million of them. But Stephens points out that 90 percent of the people who own those vehicles don't have an E85 pump within their ZIP code.

There are just more than 2,000 E85 pumps in the United States available to consumers, and most of them are concentrated in the Midwest, where the vast majority of ethanol is produced. Stephens wants 10,000 more E85 pumps, ASAP.

He makes a valid point when he says that it costs more to make a flex-fuel vehicle, and that GM is eating most of that price increase itself. But unless ethanol's prospects pick up, GM will eventually have to decide whether flex-fuel is a good investment.

That's why on Monday, Stephens toured the Kinder-Morgan fuel storage center in Orlando because that facility is doing something no other company in the U.S. can. It uses a 16-inch, 115-mile pipeline that leads from Tampa's harbor to the Orlando facility to carry ethanol. Pipeline wisdom has long suggested that it was impossible to send ethanol through a metal pipeline such a long distance, and it was especially impossible to send a batch of ethanol right before, and after, a batch of gasoline without it all mixing up in the line.

The latter problem, mixing, just hasn't occurred, the Kinder-Morgan people say. And neither has the other problem — that in the short term, ethanol would corrode the pipeline and all the valves and pumps involved, and in the long term, would cause major cracks in the pipe itself.

Why isn't it? Because Houston-based Kinder-Morgan developed a proprietary package of additives that, for reasons known only to them, negates the effect of the ethanol on the pipe. As for the valves and pumps and such, the company spent millions making them ethanol-friendly, which includes removing any gaskets or washers that were rubber, and replacing them with a DuPont-made substance not affected by ethanol.

What does this mean? That Kinder-Morgan's facility in Orlando can get almost all the ethanol it needs by pipeline from the Tampa harbor, either from ships sailing up from the Caribbean, or barges coming down the Mississippi River from the Midwest. It's cheaper than trucking it in, or bringing it in by rail.

Most of the gasoline used in the seven-county Central Florida area comes from this facility. Trucks from most every brand line up, waiting on their 11-minute fill, which includes that injection of 10 percent ethanol. If it's a truck from Shell, the gasoline pumped into the tanker truck has a special Shell-supplied additive poured in. If it's BP, then there's a special BP-supplied additive. If it's generic-brand gas, Kinder-Morgan has its own additive package.

There is no denying that a gallon of ethanol has less energy than a gallon of gasoline, so vehicles that can operate on E85 or gasoline will see perhaps 25 percent less fuel mileage on E85. Stephens knows that, but he says that if E85 is cheap enough to make up for the mileage, the only downside would be filling up your tank a little more often.

Right now, both in Florida and the U.S., E85 is about 15 percent cheaper than gasoline. "It needs to be at least 25 percent cheaper," Stephens says.

I'm with Tom Stephens. If I have an E85-capable vehicle, I'm more than happy to use it, if for no other reason that ethanol is renewable, and oil is not. But I'm only using it if my cost-per-mile remains the same, meaning E85 has to be about 25 percent cheaper than gasoline.

Sure, ethanol's part of the solution. But a lot of work remains.