Also, the esteemed junior Senator from Illinois elides another important point; that ethanol is ''cheaper'' than motor gasoline ONLY because it is subsidised by your and my tax dollars. Ethanol is also much, much harder to distribute; fapp, you can't pipe it (explanation on request), so you must either barge it or truck it w/in the continental U.S. Cha-ching!
From an energy standpoint, ethanol is also inferior to motor gasoline. I haven't time to do the conversions just now, but the 2 carbons in ethanol will produce far less motive power in an automobile engine than the average 7 carbons found in a molecule of motor gasoline. On a carbon atoms per unit volume of fuel basis, the power generation differential isn't 3.5 because the ethanol molecule occupies less space than the gasoline molecule, but it is still about 2 or 1.9 (long time since I've looked at this, sorry for the imprecision).
Bottom line, here? Osama Obama is just shilling for ADM, everyone's favourite ethanol producer, which is headquartered in **which** state?
Hand the man a see-gar, that's right. Illinois.
Heat of combustion ethanol: 7.107 kcal/gm.
Heat of combustion heptane: 11.49 kcal/gm.
Handbook of Chemistry and Physics; 63rd edition
Big difference!