I knew that cows don't digest corn well, I didn't know they digest the waste corn from alcohol (ethanol) production better! That kinda changes the argument in favor of ethanol in my mind. I was mostly against it before. If you have a win win solution, take it. Even if it only gives you a small net energy boost, it's still a boost.

In this age of information overload you'd think that kind of thing would be more well known. The problem is that it takes too long (more than 4-5 sec) to explain how it works for the average ADHD person to take in the information. Nobody is listening because their brains are already full of the info they're given. They don't want to process more even if it is better or useful for them.

A really interesting tool for understanding how much energy we use and the options is Sustainable Energy - without the hot air. If you ever want to look at how much energy each of the alternative fuels could potentially put out this is a very useful book to download (it's free to download) but I think the argument on ethanol doesn't take into consideration re-using corn mash from fermentation.