[MarkL]

every gallon of ethanol produced, is 2/3 of a gallon of petroleum that no longer needs to come from the middle east.

I've been against ethanol for quite some time. First off, butanol is a much better fuel, much closer in potential energy to gasoline. Secondly, it's easier to get from a wider selection of sources. And most importantly (IMHO), you're not setting up a competition between foodstuffs and energy sources.

Mark

[TKDietz]

"First off, butanol is a much better fuel, much closer in potential energy to gasoline. Secondly, it's easier to get from a wider selection of sources. And most importantly (IMHO), you're not setting up a competition between foodstuffs and energy sources."

Butanol is a type of alcohol. Most of it today is made from petroleum, and it's a lot more expensive than gasoline. It can also be made from crops, using the same feedstocks we use for ethanol. The problem is that it is good bit more expensive to produce than ethanol. If per acre yields and production costs were similar to ethanol yields and costs, there wouldn't be a fuel ethanol industry, there would be a big growing bio-butanol industry instead, and people would be making the same "food or fuel" arguments because we'd be using the same feedstocks for bio-butanol that we use for ethanol.