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Agreed, but look at the size of the problem and corn won't do it by itself. The farmers will get rich anyway you work this. We need the ethanol yesterday however. It will take decades to work ethanol all across the US at this pace. Remember in '75 the gubmint required a no lead pump at every station? We need the same commitment now or the ethanol will dry up because nobody but the mid west can get it. If I knew I could get E85 all across the country, I would convert my own engine to burn it right now. I would raise the compression ratio and do other things to increase the efficiency of the engine. I could get greater fuel mileage than I get on gas by doing so with more power.
Having a duel fuel arrangement just gets you less economy per gallon of ethanol because the engine is just a gas engine that will burn ethanol.

"If I knew I could get E85 all across the country, I would convert my own engine to burn it right now. I would raise the compression ratio and do other things to increase the efficiency of the engine. I could get greater fuel mileage than I get on gas by doing so with more power."

Building a better, high performace engine is certainly one of the nice things about ethanol, But I don't think you understand the reasons why.

You are dead wrong in thinking that you will get better fuel economy, as you need to burn more ethanol than you would gasoline.

The reason you can develop more power is because ethanol has a higher detonation point , allowing you to raise compression ratio's back to what they were when they used to build good motors.

You need to open up/ replace fuel jets in carberators with bigger ones however, as it takes more ethanol to produce the same amount of power at temperatures that don't melt your valves and pistons.

So, although you will have a very clean running engine, not only will you be paying much more for a gallon of ethanol E85, you won't get as far down the road with it either. (But it would be a little more fun)

We need the same commitment now or the ethanol will dry up because nobody but the mid west can get it.

It is not the only commitment we need. You see the Military is a driver, Eisenhower's need for roads, the highway system, ditto the Internet. In the early 80's there were R & D programs for engines without cooling (and almost no lubrication system) for military Trucks the "Adiabatic Engines". They were prototyped and tested and were potentially omnivorous. Also A Wankel Program was afoot, the S.C.O.R.E. program, that engine was omnivorous.

These engines used a lot of expensive materials, but what I think may have been missing from these programs was control, i.e. electronic engine controls.

What is going on right now that may or may not be a driver is the 2010 NATO requirement that all engines in the military fleet need to run on JP5 and JP8.

In my opinion, the national commitment should be for an engine that is truly omnivorous.

An engine that is omnivorous at this point would be a big cost reducer for the big 3 if they truly want a world platform that doesn't require different engines for different markets. Also, the overlooked fuel at this point? natural gas (CNG LPG). I have been reading in certain parts of the world it is much cheaper (as much as 70%) than gasoline not to mention cleaner. Keep you eye on it, I seems to be building momentum.