[redgolum]

Brazil uses sugar cane, and if you use the same criteria for gas that Pimetal used for ethanol (and adjust both for current production methods) it is about a wash. Maybe a slight nod to ethanol because of the byproducts used for animal feed (not sure how to put that into the equation).

[cb]

The point is, whether slightly positive or negative, you don't get off the hydrocarbon straw with ethanol. .....even if its from grass or whatever.
its insane to talk of ethanol when oil shale and tar sands are abundent in north america. Even coal can be converted to coal gas (as originally before "natural" gas) and coal oil (kerosene) and there is sure plenty of that. I guess that coal miners still don't have the lobby that farmers do!