Ethanol burns much more efficiently than gas, so the energy density is made up by that. The loss in milage is no more than 10% but some tricks with vaporization can actually get you better milage than gas, especially if you take off all that pollution control crap that isn't needed with ethanol. Once you go above 50% ethanol in a flex fuel vehicle, the check engine light comes on. The reason? The catylitic converter goes out because it has nothing to burn!

I work in the nuclear industry. The new batch will be on line in under 10 years. The process has been streamlined. No one would build any new ones if they thought it would take 30 years. There are over 30 applications in the works for new nukes and a couple have broken ground for contruction. The economy is the biggest factor holding things back. Demand for electricity is down.

Breakthroughs have been made in making alcohol from cellulose. Once they crack that issue, ethanol will be very cheap, probably around 10 cents a gallon.

tyrtaeus - You must have missed the cost thing. Corn is not subsidized, but farming is and they pay you not to grow. They artifically keep the price of corn and grain high. Even at that, if you were going to pay $5 a bushel to feed cows, you can get $4.80 from the alcohol, and still feed the cows.