Ethanol and biodeisel infrastructure would do more for the war on terror than snooping on granny's library habits. I'm tired of funding third world dictators who hate me just so I can drive to work. I'd rather fund American farmers. It seems common sense to me.
Plus we have enough crude anyway. We have more crude than the entire Middle-East. We have over a trillion barrels in shale oil, and uncounted amounts in our continental shelf. It would take some time and work to begin pumping it, but remove the restrictions, and increase demand for domestic oil and the problem would be solve itself. Plus we would not ban oil from Canada, as they are our friend. Nuclear could replace heating oil, and anything else that can be done with electricity. Hybrids could reduce the demand as well. We have the technology, with a little work we could be completely independent excepting Canada.
ethanol is a joke. It produces cancer-causing agents. Its expensive, requires masive subsidies. Its 1/3 less powerful than gasoline. Ethonal is nothing more than badly spent money by government.