Straight alchohol has a corrosive effect on the rubber and plastic used in engines and fuel systems. I'm not knocking your suggestion... I'm all for alternative sources of fuel.
I was mad as hell when the Democrats in Congress voted down Bush's first energy bill, with their weak excuses and blubbering half-truths about "Bush's oil friends". We have the technology in this coutnry to change our entire energy infrastructure and I think somebody who can market it stands to make a fortune by doing so. I'm not a proponent of alternative fuels because of some mystical reverence for the environment that you usually hear from a bunch of stoned hippies on the Left Coast... I think we should do it to stick it to those tyrants and playground bullies in the Middle East. Let the market drive the changes and the ME will fall into obscurity.
I agree. My idea of an energy policy would be an announcement, "Domestic energy self-sufficiency starts January 1, 2006." Then watch how fast U.S. oil production would climb, and how quickly other economical energy sources would be marketed.