The Automotive Engineering Technology program at Minnesota State University would play a role in making Minnesota a leader in reducing dependence on gasoline under legislation being pushed by state lawmakers.

MSU’s automotive program would be granted $100,000 to study using ethanol-based fuel in hybrid vehicles and also examine the best ways to boost the ability of the cars to rely on battery-power for short trips.

“This is research that would be of national significance,” said Rep. Frank Hornstein, DFL-Minneap-olis, the chief sponsor of the bill.

Ethanol-powered vehicles aren’t new. E-85 fuel pumps, which contain fuel that’s 85 percent ethanol and just 15 percent petroleum, are now more common in Minnesota than virtually anywhere else in the country. Hybrid vehicles, which are powered by both fuel-powered engines and electric motors, are also increasingly popular.

And several companies are offering kits, albeit very expensive ones, that allow hybrid cars to run for up to 30 miles solely on batteries, which are recharged by plugging the car into a garage outlet each night.

The legislation sponsored by Hornstein and Rep. Laura Brod, R-New Prague, attempts to tie those efforts together into a single vehicle. It would also make a commitment to buy thousands of those vehicles for the state’s vehicle fleet once they become available at a price not more than 10 percent higher than a typical model.

Hornstein, one of the Legislature’s most enthusiastic environmentalists, said a move to flexible-fuel, plug-in hybrid vehicles makes sense for Minnesota in ways that go beyond reducing pollution and greenhouse gases that lead to global warming.

Transforming automobiles to that system would reduce dependence on foreign oil, promote the use of Minnesota based energy such as ethanol and wind-generated power, and potentially produce substantial savings for consumers as gasoline prices spiral ever upward, according to Hornstein. In addition, the legislation will attempt to convince officials from Ford Motor Co. to transform its St. Paul assembly plant into one that produces the new vehicles.

“We really believe the technology is here now,” he said.

Bruce Jones, a professor of automotive engineering technology at MSU, said his colleagues and students would be charged with developing a couple of vehicles to demonstrate and test how the technologies tie together.

The program several years ago converted a Toyota Prius to run on E-85. Jones said there are companies that offer kits — at a cost of about $8,000 — to turn a hybrid vehicle into a plug-in car. Advocates of the technology say they can charge a vehicle overnight and drive at speeds up to 34 miles per hour for 30 miles on the single charge. And the energy cost for the electricity is equivalent to 80-cent per gallon gasoline.

While that top speed and range would be enough for many urban drivers, the advantage of a plug-in hybrid is that it would have a fuel-powered engine to take over when the batteries run low or higher speeds are needed.

Jones said MSU would study exhaust emissions of the vehicles, performance and the amount of money that a consumer would save compared to driving a traditional car or a standard hybrid vehicle.

“This fits perfectly with our curriculum and our program,” according to Jones, who said the program hoped to focus more on hybrid technology even before the new legislation was developed.

While $100,000 isn’t a substantial amount of money for a research project, Jones hopes that former students now working for Ford and Toyota might help facilitate donations by the companies. The developers of the plug-in technology might also be willing to donate equipment.