But some people here are trying to promote it as such.
No fuel source is. For gasoline engines, ethanol is about the best option running. But a diesel engine fueled from thermally cracked waste or BioDiesel has a much higher net energy balance and engine simplicity. Also, BioDiesel has a much greater potential energy feedstock than just about any other farmed fuel. The energy potential from algal BioDiesel is phenomenal; much greater than even cellulose sourced ethanol. That's not to say BioDiesel is itself perfect, just that it has a higher energy delivery potential.
In other words, ethanol can help free us from kissing arab tuckus. But you can tell more arabs to go to hell with a gallon of BioDiesel than a gallon of ethanol.
I don't understand why people are so quick to attack ethanol as an alternative fuel.
They're not. Really. They just very quick to point out when someone is pushing an alternative fuel source without also mentioning its disadvantages.
We won't ever be able to estalish alternative fuels if we don't also warn people of their drawbacks. If people have to learn the drawbacks themselves the hard way, they'll be permanently soured on alternative fuels and we'll have to pucker up to Mecca for decades to come.
So ... we should continue to eschew alternatives because they're not perfect but we should continue to buy Arab crude because it is? C'mon. The time for alternative fuels has been ripe since the first oil embargo. The oil companies were just smart enough to loosen the reins when it looked like the horse was going to buck. Nowadays, with gas up 40 percent in a year, the time is ripe again. And this time, hopefully, there will be no going back. E85 and its cousins are here to stay ... if we're lucky.