[pyotr]

I think plug-in hybrids are the way to go. Maybe using alternative fuels in combination only if technological advances in agriculture/production/transportation occur.

Back to the ethanol question - yes Indy has switched to ethanol-based fuels but since when has auto-racing been interested in gas mileage and money savings? They switched purely because 1) it would provide publicity for ethanol and spotlight Indy racing as an apparently "green" sport (wrong) 2) ethanol does promote higher octane performance at a higher cost (the $2/gallon for ethanol estimate is totally off-base unless you are completely forgetting about subsidies paid by tax-payers). Brazil switched to ethanol due to their horrible foreign debt - they basically had no choice and this plan failed horribly in the 80s-90s until it was given a second try in the past decade and they have been depleting their lands/rainforests with the huge swaths of sugar cane plantations this switch has cost them.

A 2001 USDA study concluded that with the additional heating required using coals or natural gas etc. in order to manufacture ethanol, gasohol was a NET GREENHOUSE EMITTER, not a reducer. Several studies including ones by USDA have shown ethanol is a marginal net energy value product, very probably a net negative energy value if you took into account the high heat production, transportation, the watering and fertilizing requirements. Without a huge technological advance, ethanol-based fuel is not feasible large scale for consumers. Ethanol will cause higher pressures in fuel lines and will dry rot fuel pumps thus requiring all car manufacturers to upgrade and raise the price of their cars also (at lower gas mileages too!).