The food shortages - and riots - we are seeing are the direct result of governments mandating and subsidizing biofuels. Farm land is being taken out of food and feed production and put in to fuel production. This is why food prices have been rising here. IMHO, it is immoral to take farm land out of food and feed production and put in to fuel production.

Ethanol is crap as a fuel. At best its energy quantity vs production energy requirements are a wash. It contains less energy per gallon than gasoline and vehicles equipped to operate on E85 will see a 15%-25% drop in fuel mileage. It attracts water and ethanol-gasoline blends disassociate in the presence of water, so it has to be shipped by rail or truck.

Biodiesel is a better fuel, containing nearly the same energy content per gallon as petroleum-based diesel. That said, my moral objection to growing crops for fuel and not food still stands.

Even using waste biomass to create it, ethanol is a loser as a wide-use fuel vehicle. Biodiesel produced from waste vegetable oil is a good thing (again, IMHO). If I had a diesel vehicle, I would be looking for a local restaurant or two to talk to about their waste oil.