Seen article from Car and Driver on E-85?

Question

Anything on E85 - Feature

Closet Gas Hogs

Anything on E85

City/Highway: Minus 25 percent

E85, a blended fuel consisting of 85-percent ethanol and 15-percent gasoline, has been championed (by GM in particular) as a viable and green solution to the petroleum problem. Unfortunately, both adjectives are a stretch. You could fill volumes with debate over the benefits and social, fiscal, and environmental costs of ethanol, at least the starch-derived strains, so we won’t.

What you need to know is that E85 reduces the fuel economy of any vehicle burning it by about 25 percent. For example, the grand-prize glugger of the full-size-truck segment, the Dodge Ram 1500, gets 12 mpg in the city and 16 on the highway. Fill ’er up with E85, and the fuel “economy” falls to 9/12. That’s right, a single-digit mpg number, something the average person only experiences in Uncle Dwayne’s RV or when renting a U-Haul truck. Or take the Dodge Avenger V-6, which gets a semi-respectable 19 city/27 highway. Pour in the corn juice, and watch mileage drop to an SUV-like 13/20.

Pres. George Bush recently announced a proposed mandate for 35 billion gallons of ethanol production by 2017, so you’ll probably see more vehicles so equipped, regardless. An upshot of an ethanol/alcohol future is that we tired journalists will have a whole new hamper of words and terms involving alcoholism and ethanol overindulgence to reach into.

Answer 1

If we find a source for the ethanol that is more than 25% better than current gasoline, then we will still be better off in the long run.  Unfortunately, it will probably cost more and require us to fill out tanks more often.

Answer 2

How we make is the answer and corn doesn't work.

Switch grass, fibrous plant material will work and its on the way.

When gas hits $6 - $8 a gallon, you'll park your piggly wiggly SUV.