It has been a while but I have more information about alcohol as a fuel source. Here is a link to an expert on this topic: http://www.alcoholcanbeagas.com/node/490. In case this site changes the link in the future, it is from a page about the book "Alcohol Can Be A Gas" by David Blume. He also has a web site at http://www.permaculture.com. He has been a very successful permaculture farmer earning $100,000.00 per acre. Most farmers don't earn half that amount these days.

The first link is about busting the myths about alcohol as a fuel. There are videos on the site as well as plenty of information on how the USA could totally get off of oil as our transportation fuel source.

It turns out that any car made today can run on 50% alcohol (ethanol) without doing any modifications to it. Some newer cars can run on 100% alcohol or a very high percentage of it. Some car computers won't allow 100% alcohol but they will allow plenty of it. The oxygen sensor is the main hang-up.

Automobile engines optimized for running on alcohol as a fuel actually get BETTER MILEAGE than the same car running on gasoline. Diesel motors can be converted to run on pure alcohol and get 20% more mileage than regular diesel engines. This happens because the octane rating of alcohol is over 100. This means the motors can run much better with very high compression ratios. That means that engines can get more horsepower for the same engine size. What would be better is to make much smaller and lighter motors to be even more economical.

There is a type of tumbleweed in the desert southwest that grows wild and requires NO irrigation or care. This weed can produce more gallons of alcohol per acre than corn.

There is a non-food type of sugar beet that produces three times the amount of alcohol per acre than corn. It doesn't require very much irrigation and can be grown with very little effort.

Acreage used for food would not need to be changed to acreage for fuel even if all of North America switched to alcohol for transportation fuel. There is plenty of acreage in the USA to continue feeding us and donating food to third world nations (if they would take it).

Brazil imports no oil. It is the fifth largest economy and it uses alcohol for its fuel source. Brazil only uses 2% of its farm land for alcohol production AND they export alcohol.

If the USA automotive fleet ran on alcohol instead of oil $700,000,000,000.00 would stay in this country each year instead of going abroad. How many jobs do you think that would create? I think plenty.