It is local, renewable and greater use of it enhances national security.

nergy balance estimates are not easily produced, thus numerous such reports have been generated that are contradictory. For instance, a separate survey reports that production of ethanol from sugarcane, which requires a tropical climate to grow productively, returns from 8 to 9 units of energy for each unit expended, as compared to corn which only returns about 1.34 units of fuel energy for each unit. A study by atmospheric scientists at Stanford University found that E85 fuel would increase the risk of air pollution. The process of ethanol production from corn revealed that they released VOCs (volatile organic compounds) at a higher rate than had previously been disclosed by it’s makers. Large-scale farming is necessary to produce agricultural alcohol and this requires substantial amounts of cultivated land. University of Minnesota researchers report that if all corn grown in the U.S. were used to make ethanol it would only displace 12 percent of current U.S. gasoline consumption. Some propose non agricultural plants on non agricultural lands. Even so let the private sector explore and develop these mechanisms and programs. Because they’ll be the ones developing it sooner or later anyway and if not at least public money wasn’t spent on it.