Corn requires one and one half times as much energy in its production as it offers as an end product. There are other crops that have much better potential as biofuels. The ratio for sorghum is 8 units of fuel produced for every 1 unit of fuel to make it, which eliminates the deficit we have with corn. My father has a PhD in agriculture, and works part time (he's retired) on a research farm for the University of Kentucky, where a professor is studying sorghum production. Sorghum is used mainly as a feed crop for animal agriculture. However, its potential for biofuel production is obviously greater than that of corn. I wonder why so much media attention has focused on corn? It is more costly to make a gallon of (petroleum-based-agricultrally-produced)corn-based ethanol than it is to just fill up our cars with petroleum directly.

If I can add a link here, I found a recent news article on the internet about sorghum biofuel research being done in India:

http://www.energycurrent.com/index.php?id=3&storyid=10539

Barack Obama has stated his opposition to new off-shore drilling saying that no new oil would come online for 10 years. Even if that were true, won't we need petroleum products 10 years from now?? Are our Naval ships, Air Force fighters and Army tanks going to run on solar?? Or maybe wind energy. There is no vision for the future from Barack or the Democratic party. We need all of it, every possible means of energy should be pursued, but not at the expense of oil. And if alternate energy sources take off in this country, wouldn't it be wonderful to have a SURPLUS of oil that we could export to our allies so they ae not at the mercy of corrupt regimes?? It would minimize the influence of nations like Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and Iran. Will India and China stop using oil 10 years from now?? Wouldn't it be awesome to bring oil revenues to this country?? Wouldn't that be great for your kids and grandkids to leave them a a strong and secure country that is NOT a debtor nation??

Where is my guarantee that allowing oil companies to drill in the gulf and other places will substantially lower the price I pay for gas? Tie the drilling to the price. At $4 a gallon they get no drilling and no oil can be taken, at $2 they get some, at $1 they get more...

First off, check out the Pickens Plan. The idea is to use wind (and solar) energy as part of our electric grid, and then take the natural gas that was used for electricity and use it as a motor fuel.

Second thing is that I see cellulosic ethanol as a player once it matures. It can use so many more sources (switchgrass, cardboard boxes, etc). Not perfect, but better than corn ethanol.

This 54 cent/gallon tax resulted after Brazil started to make the ethanol right after the oil crisis of the 70's. This occured because the sugar/oil companies were scared that Brazil's imports would cause the prices to stay low, or go down. This is another example of how big companies control goverment.

Ethinal does not work for an energy source.

David Pimentel, a professor of ecology at Cornell University who has been studying grain alcohol for 20 years, and Tad Patzek, an engineering professor at the University of California, Berkeley, co-wrote a recent report that estimates that making ethanol from corn requires 29 percent more fossil energy than the ethanol fuel itself actually contains.

The two scientists calculated all the fuel inputs for ethanol production—from the diesel fuel for the tractor planting the corn, to the fertilizer put in the field, to the energy needed at the processing plant—and found that ethanol is a net energy-loser. According to their calculations, ethanol contains about 76,000 BTUs per gallon, but producing that ethanol from corn takes about 98,000 BTUs. For comparison, a gallon of gasoline contains about 116,000 BTUs per gallon. But making that gallon of gas—from drilling the well, to transportation, through refining—requires around 22,000 BTUs.

There's another problem: Ethanol, when mixed with gasoline, causes the mixture to evaporate very quickly. That forces refiners to dramatically alter their gasoline to compensate for the ethanol. (Throughout the year, refiners adjust the vapor pressure of their fuel to compensate for the change in air temperature. In summer, you want gasoline to evaporate slowly. In winter, you want it to evaporate quickly.) In a report released last month, the GAO underscored the evaporative problems posed by ethanol, saying that compensating for ethanol forces refiners to remove certain liquids from their gasoline: "Removing these components and reprocessing them or diverting them to other products increases the cost of making ethanol-blended gasoline."

In addition to the transportation and volatility issues, ethanol will add yet more blends of gasoline to the retail market. Last year, American refiners produced 45 different types of gasoline. Each type of gasoline needs specific tanks and pipes. Adding ethanol to the 45 blends we already have means we will be "making more blends for more markets. That complexity means more costs," says David Pursell, a partner at Pickering Energy Partners, a Houston brokerage.

There's a final point to be raised about ethanol: It contains only about two-thirds as much energy as gasoline. Thus, when it gets blended with regular gasoline, it lowers the heat content of the fuel. So, while a gallon of ethanol-blended gas may cost the same as regular gasoline, it won't take you as far.

What frustrates critics is that there are sensible ways to reduce our motor-fuel use and bolster renewable energy—they just don't help the corn lobby. Patzek points out that if we channeled the billions spent on ethanol into fuel-efficient cars and solar cells, "That would give us so much more bang for the buck that it's a no-brainer."

I'm from Atlanta and I've been working here in Brazil for quite some time now. From what I see as I walk by gas stations it seems they sell both gasoline and what they call alcohol which is the stuff made from sugar. The gas is about 6 dollars a gallon and the sugar stuff 3. I asked a local here whos car can run on either why anyone would choose the gasoline. He told me that the mileage he gets with gas is about double what he gets when using the alcohol. If all that is true then it would seem the prices are about even. Both are more than the price of gas in Atlanta. Maybe we don't have it so bad after all.