Ethanol

Interesting article on ethanol. While criticisms of the fuel alternative have some merits, I don't know of anyone that is saying that we could replace all of our gasoline consumption with it. All I (along with many others) have said it that it is better than using even more oil, and that its primary use is to complement, but not totally replace, refined hydrocarbon-based energy sources.

"We definitely believe that biofuels (such as ethanol) have a significant potential," said Jason Hill, lead author of the University of Minnesota study. But he added that ethanol should not be viewed as "a savior" to our energy problems and its rapid expansion as a motor fuel has its drawbacks, especially if it is dependent on food crops such as corn and soybeans as feedstock.
If every acre of corn were used for ethanol, it would replace only 12.3 percent of the gasoline used in this country, Hill's study said, adding that the energy gains of corn-produced ethanol are only modest and the environmental impacts significant. "

I'm not sure what the environmental impacts are, given that the corn would be grown anyway, either for food, livestock feed, or agro-industrial uses like fructose. The cool thing about ethanol is that you can get your fructose, then make ethanol out of what is leftover and used to just be disposed of, so I'm not so sure the energy inputs they are claiming are all that accurate -- I've seen studies showing up to a 67 % payoff, but even this one shows 25 %.