Ahem. California bought over 1,000 flex-fuel vehicles two years ago, but where's the E85?

This ought to rile people up. Two years ago, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration in the state of California purchased over a thousand flex-fuel vehicles, making a big deal about how they were green vehicles and would help clean up California's notoriously bad air. Quickly, the hoopla died down and the state has been filling the cars with standard gasoline ever since. Now, two state Senators want to hold meetings to figure out why.

The Senate Governmental Organization Committee and the Senate Committee on Air Quality will hold a joint hearing Aug. 15 on the matter. GOC chairman Sen. Dean Florez, D-Bakersfield told the Mercury News that, "This seems to be a pattern. The governor loves to take the time to pose and talk about the greening of California, but very little gets done in terms of doing the hard work."

The National Ethanol Vehicle Coalition lists five E85 stations in California, but three of them are not open to the public and the Mercury News - which helped prompt the Senate hearing with their initial report on the pure gasoline "flex fuel" vehicles - says there is not a single ethanol station is available to the state fleet.

The governor's office replied that the vehicles will be in the fleet for years, and "we hope the fuel will be available in the near future."

[Source: Kimberly Kindy / San Jose Mercury News via Jalopnik]