I hear ya on ethanol not being the ultimate fuel of the future. Using corn for ethanol is stupid, and having US tax dollars go to farmers to grow corn for
ethanol is even more retarded. Its not the right crop for making ethanol, and makes food prices higher. So why should we subsidize it?
I am not a McCain fan but he supports dropping the U.S. tariffs on Brazilian ethanol imports. In Brazil this works b/c they can grow sugar cane efficiently (right climate, cheap labor, tons of land, good distribution infrastructure / refineries etc) Allowing cheap Brazilian ethanol into the US would enable me to fill my car with a renewable resource from a friendly country rather than a non renewable resource from the Mid east, Russia or Venezuela. If you have ever spent time in Brazil , you see how this all works. And I don't see why it couldn't be the same here in the states if we dropped the tariffs on Brazilian ethanol imports. This could act as a transition fuel away from oil as we move to electric cars over the next decade or so.
interesting page about this here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethanol_fuel_in_Brazil