At his Detroit speech outlining his plan to end the “tyranny of oil” in Detroit Monday, Barack Obama anticipated questions about his mode of transportation.

Now that he us under Secret Service protection, this greenest of green politicians takes a motorcade of at least two armored Chevy Suburban SUVs (EPA est. fuel economy: 15 mpg – likely less for the armored version) wherever he goes.

“I showed up at this event in a government vehicle that does not have a flexible-fuel (gas or E85 ethanol) tank. When I’m president, I will make sure that every vehicle purchased by the federal government does,” he preened.

Problem solved, right?

Actually, E85 solves nothing. Due to ethanol’s energy-hungry refining process, ethanol studies find that ethanol would have a marginal effect at best when it came to replacing fossil fuel use or emissions.