WASHINGTON - Congressman Eliot Engel of Rockland and Westchester Tuesday introduced legislation that would require half of all cars made in America to be flexible fuel vehicles, able to run on gasoline or alcohol or a combination of both, by the year 2012 and rising to 80 percent by 2015.

Engel said the cost of gasoline is killing the economy and something must be done in the long term to reduce America’s dependence on foreign oil.

“Brazil has done it. They embarked more than 30 years ago on a plan to make themselves energy independent. All their cars are flex fuel cars,” he said. It would only cost about $100 more per vehicle to build them to accommodate flex fuel, Engel said. “If Brazil can do it, why can’t the United States?”

Engel introduced the bill, the Open Fuel Standards Act, Tuesday with Reps. Jack Kingston, R-GA, Steve Israel, D-NY, and Bob Inglis, R-SC.