For alt-fuel goal, past is prologue.(News)(alternative fuels)

Byline: Harry Stoffer

Like a ghost, a 15-year-old government vow to get more cars and trucks to use alternative fuels has reappeared. Now that vow is haunting newly made promises to do exactly the same thing.

In 1992, Congress and the first President Bush enacted a law that included the goal of replacing 30 percent of gasoline and diesel fuel with alternatives by 2010. Federal agencies now expect the actual replacement rate to be about 4.5 percent by then.

This month, a court order compelled the U.S. Energy Department to concede that the 1992 goal is unachievable. The department set a new goal: reach 30 percent by 2030. But that date is farther off …