Tootsall

A bit more on this: politics weigh heavily into whether or not ethanol (and bio-diesel) will become significantly more prevalent in the future. At work I receive a news bulletin related to the sweetener industry (I work in the sugar industry) on a monthly basis; here's a clip from the one I got just 15 minutes ago:

"At an Ag Forum, House Ag Committee Chairman Colin Peterson said, “I tell my people at home instead of growing sugar beets you might be growing switch grass.” At the same meeting, the head of the renewable fuels association said that five years from now the ethanol industry will be unrecognizable from what it is today because of cellulosic ethanol. The Department of Energy is appropriating $385 million to promote the production of cellulosic ethanol. USDA estimates that ethanol will consume 30 percent of the corn crop over the next decade, up from 20 percent currently. Meanwhile, the cattlemen’s association, which is concerned about high feed prices, has called for an end to ethanol subsidies and the 54-cent per gallon import duty. "


So you can see that there is much more to the issue than meets the eye of the average consumer!