I agree on the ethanol issue, and one day, possibly within a few years we shall see corn farmers becoming the new "oil money makers class."
I have NO CLUE why Detroit don't go with alcohol as their primary fuel.
Case in point:
Put two shot glasses on a table beside each other. Fill one with gasoline; fill the other with grain alcohol. Now decide which one you want to set on fire first:
If you light the alcohol first, then the fumes from the gas are gonna flash and singe off your eyebrows.
If you light the gasoline first, then the fumes from the gas are gonna flash and singe off your eyebrows.
OK, maybe that wasn't such a good example, lets try it agian.
Fill a shot glass with alcohol. Set it on fire. Watch it burn nice and evenly.
Now fill a shot glass with gasoline. Set it on fire. Since you've already singed off your eyebrows, you've got nothing left to loose by trying it.
I know itwould take a little work to swap our standard ICE designs over to ethanol, but it would be FAR cheaper- and just about as clean- as any of the other alternatives. They could keep the same production methods and assembly plants. They'd have to do a fair to midling amount of work on engine design, bu it's cheaper than coming up with a whole new type of car.