SAO PAULO, Brazil, May 13, 2006 — At 34,000 fuel stations in Brazil, drivers have the option of never touching a drop of oil.

Here, nearly half the cars on the road are called flex cars, and nearly all the new ones are sold with a special device that allows a regular engine to run on pure ethanol.

Flex cars use power that is not from shrinking deposits of underground oil, but grown on the Earth's surface from renewable sugar cane.