The Economist thinks so. We at Discovery Institute’s Cascadia Center think ethanol is worth developing, but that the real savings are to be had in plug in hybrids to conserve fuel and (I would add) nuclear power to produce alternative energy that plug-ins, among others, can employ. Yet these options are not getting the attention and support being paid to ethanol. Neither branch of the federal government is fully engaged yet on either plug-ins or on nuclear.
What we need is a war-time sense of urgency. Oh, I just remembered, there IS a war on and it does have serious energy implications, doesn’t it? So what does it take to make the decision-movers move?