GaryPDX: I much prefer buying my energy from American farmers instead of middle eastern nutballs.

Like meat much? Or corn muffins?

Because it takes 15% of our corn harvest (in a good year) to make 2.8% of our automotive fuel. If you took 100% of the harvest, meaning no corn to export to starving Africans, no corn to make muffins or tortillas, and no corn to feed to hogs and cattle, you could supply a bit less than 20% of the demand for automotive fuel.

You would actually need 5 more of each of the corn belt states, all the way from Indiana to Nebraska, to make 100% of automotive fuels.

Now, we're not counting the fact that a good bit of oil is required to fertilize that corn, and a fair amount of energy is needed to grow, transport, mash, ferment, distill, and transport the resulting ethanol--so much that you get, at best, about a quarter or a third more energy out than you put in, and some say it doesn't even break even. So plan on importing oil to cover this raw material and energy need.

Then, the usefulness of ethanol as a fuel is questionable. It contains less energy, roughly 2/3s, per weight and per volume, of gasoline. It burns hotter, causing more NOX emissions. It is more corrosive, requiring more expensive engines to burn it as a result.

Bottom line--ethanol is never going to be a viable solution. It makes shiatloads of money for ADM, it helps keep the Senators and Representatives from Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, and Indiana in power (including donations from ADM, of course), and it gives people a good feeling when they buy their E85 vehicles, but it doesn't do a goddamn thing to save energy or reduce energy dependence.