ethanol may just be another overhyped illusion says Ed Wallace, writing in Business Week. "Ethanol: A Tragedy in 3 Acts" is lengthy but this might encourage you to read it: "From General Motors, an ad campaign called 'Live Green, Go Yellow' gave America the impression that by purchasing GM vehicles capable of using E85 ethanol, we could help reduce our dependence on foreign oil. What GM left out of its ads was that the use of this fuel would likely increase the amount of smog during the summer months... and that using E85 in GM products would lower their fuel efficiency by as much as 25%." "The other negative aspect of this inefficient fuel is that numerous studies have found that ethanol creates less energy than is required to make it."

Over the past month, gas stations from Dallas to Philadelphia and parts of Massachusetts have had their tanks run dry due to a lack of ethanol to blend. Photo © the American Coalition of Ethanol