This used to be called "moonshining." Now it's energy independence. Just don't ask how much energy it takes to process all the stuff that goes into the vat, and how much energy the distillation process uses to produce the "fuel."

Bill,

You're correct. The real point about corn ethanol is that producing it, even mass producing it as efficiently as big business can, only gives about 1.3 times the energy that went in. It's nearly pointless. One might at least argue that when done en masse, it provides work for farmers. However, it's the huge agribusiness that is taking advantage of the subsidies for this. There's nearly zero benefit. And, it uses a lot of water and puts driving in competition with eating, which is bad for the less well-off individuals of the world that could be eating the corn.

Actually, it's perfectly legal to make your own alcohol fuel provided you go to the BATF and get the proper license for it. It's even possible to make alcohols out of sawdust, provided you don't mind working with powerful acids to crack the cellulose into simple sugars.

http://journeytoforever.org/ethanol_link.html#ethylester

Not everyone wants to screw around with 18 molar sulfuric acid in their garage, though.