This ethonal stuff is getting ridiculous...
Politicians listening to non engineers and scientists...
It takes more energy to convert corn by harvesting, mashing, distilling, etc to get ethanol than is released by burning it. Also, the number of C-H bonds broken is less than gasoline so the energy out is less so you have to burn more to get the same amount of work which means less fuel economy and more pollution. Only a subsidy trick for the corn belt. This point has been brought up many times by my friend, Dr. John Fenn, 2002 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, but the politicians find the votes in the corn states too appealing to ignore, regardless of the logic. Similar to push for electric cars...no one asks where the electricity comes from...burning fossil fuels, primarily. I haven't looked at the economy of it, but a better use of corn might be to make vegatable oil to run in diesels...which, by the way, if anyone converts their diesel to run on waste restaurant grease/veg oil, keep a low profile. Every time I read about this in the paper, it won't take long before legislators take notice and want to force you to pay road tax on that "free" fuel!
R/
Joe